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| Economy | ||
| White House putting off release of budget update | ||
| 2009-07-20 | ||
| The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress. The release of the update -- usually scheduled for mid-July -- has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess. The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance. The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the "chances are high" of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage. "Instead of a dream, this routine report could be a nightmare," Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official and White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said of the delayed budget update. "There are some things that can't be escaped." The administration earlier this year predicted that unemployment would peak at about 9 percent without a big stimulus package and 8 percent with one. Congress did pass a $787 billion two-year stimulus measure, yet unemployment soared to 9.5 percent in June and appears headed for double digits. Obama's current forecast anticipates 3.2 percent growth next year, then 4 percent or higher growth from 2011 to 2013. Private forecasts are less optimistic, especially for next year. 3.2, 4%? The Obama administration said that with a straight face? Any downward revision in growth or revenue projections would mean that budget deficits would be far higher than the administration is now suggesting. Replace with lying. Setting the stage for bleaker projections, Vice President Joe Biden recently conceded, "We misread how bad the economy was" in January. Obama modified that by suggesting the White House had "incomplete" information. It's OK Joe. We know you are clueless in every way possible. The new budget update comes as the public and members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious over Obama's economic policies. Worried about losing the next election and the loss of your spendthrift ways with trillions of other peoples' money? A Washington Post-ABC News survey released Monday shows approval of Obama's handling of health-care reform slipping below 50 percent for the first time. The poll also found support eroding on how Obama is dealing with other issues that are important to Americans right now -- the economy, unemployment and the swelling budget deficit. The Democratic-controlled Congress is reeling from last week's testimony by the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, that the main health care proposals Congress is considering would not reduce costs -- as Obama has insisted -- but "significantly expand" the federal financial responsibility for health care. That gave ammunition to Republican critics of the bill. Late last week, Obama vowed anew that "health insurance reform cannot add to our deficit over the next decade and I mean it." I believe this is the exact moment the TOTUS committed suicide. The nation's debt -- the total of accumulated annual budget deficits -- now stands at $11.6 trillion. In the scheme of things, that's more important than talking about the "deficit," which only looks at a one-year slice of bookkeeping and totally ignores previous indebtedness that is still outstanding. Even so, the administration has projected that the annual deficit for the current budget year will hit $1.84 trillion, four times the size of last year's deficit of $455 billion. Private forecasters suggest that shortfall may actually top $2 trillion. If a higher deficit and lower growth numbers are not part of the administration's budget update, that will lead to charges that the White House is manipulating its figures to offer too rosy an outlook -- the same criticism leveled at previous administrations.
Orszag, making the rounds of Sunday talk shows, insisted the economy at the end of last year, which the White House used for its optimistic budget forecasts, "was weaker at that time than anyone anticipated." He cited a "sense of free fall" not fully recognized at the time. "It's going to take time to work our way out of it," the White House budget director told "Fox News Sunday." Even as it prepares to put larger deficit and smaller growth figures into its official forecast, the administration is looking for signs of improvement. "If we were at the brink of catastrophe at the beginning of the year, we have walked some substantial distance back from the abyss," said Lawrence Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser. | ||
| Posted by:ed |
| #16 OS -- exactly. Too bad the order wasn't reversed. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2009-07-20 23:55 |
| #15 Dale - Quite so. Religion is, I believe, merely another aspect of the shared culture that has bound this nation together. It didn't matter much if one was Jewish, Catholic, Protestant or some other variant but it mattered very much that most of us pretty much, whatever our faith might have been, once shared via those faiths a fundamental set of morals that informed our society. The rapid loss of faith has led to a reversion of man to his more instinctive nature and a corresponding breakdown of social mores and in turn our society. The Enlightenment ideal of a society based purely on reason seems to me to be in the process of failing. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2009-07-20 22:49 |
| #14 Living document sooner or later results in dead citizens -- then dead politicians. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-07-20 22:16 |
| #13 AzCat, great response. Shared culture, yes and when GOD is out we have the rule of man. Hence the migrations to the District of Columbia. Each race of man wants power for his or her group at the expense of all others (this is how they view our history). No melting pot no shared culture. Constitution? will be changed to suit their needs why- "Congress can make the law and Congress can change the law". It's a living document after all. |
| Posted by: Dale 2009-07-20 21:57 |
| #12 Annihilation, maybe? |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-07-20 16:24 |
| #11 The reason for the delay is obvious, they don't know what comes after Trillion. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2009-07-20 16:11 |
| #10 Why? same voter support. True as far as it goes but the real "why" goes a bit deeper. Plato noted that Greek society could not craft a culture, "... by high argument by which all things are seen to be relative." When relativism (to choose a modern evil) and/or other factors erode the shared culture of a nation the nation cannot long survive since the culture imposes the social mores necessary to an orderly society. With the shared culture absent man's innate nature which is constant across time and space reasserts itself and chaos of the sort you described or a short-lived rule of the mob necessarily result. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2009-07-20 16:11 |
| #9 Or Socialism always does a lot for the economy. It just doesn't do any good - quite the opposite in fact. As I'm afraid we are going to find out first hand. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-07-20 15:32 |
| #8 The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. Socialism never did do much for the economy. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-07-20 15:27 |
| #7 I'm sure he meant... Bammo meant nothing more or less than what the teleprompter told him to say. That is the extent of his personal involvement with any of this. Did the teleprompter contain a typo? Maybe, but Occam's Razor says that this administration is lying...again. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-07-20 15:12 |
| #6 Well, cut him some slack. They've been having typo troubles in this admin for a while. I mean, they couldn't even spell "Barack" correctly a week or two ago, right? I'm sure he meant negative 3.2% for this year, with negative 4% thereafter. I doubt that anyone reading this would disagree with that prediction, right? |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-07-20 13:31 |
| #5 Keep an eye on California and it's major cities. When the free dough and gov't cheese runs out it should get ugly rather quickly. This will be Barry's cue to suspend the US Constitution and initiate gov't resettlement camps and collective schemes. It's the rich farmers and land owners who are at fault! This land must be shared! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-07-20 12:33 |
| #4 What happens when the economic bottom falls out and no one will fund the spending? You think Bambi is anti-free speech now? You will have seen nothing compared to what he will be. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-07-20 10:37 |
| #3 3.2, 4%? The Obama administration said that with a straight face? The advantages of through grounding in dialectical materialism. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-07-20 10:13 |
| #2 I have no worries. O's buddies are experts! They are sooooo good we have to overlook any previous past tax problems. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2009-07-20 09:55 |
| #1 LBJ had a similar troubles. Kennedy's war then LBJ expanded it. The migrations to the cities went on at this time. Riots, War, migrations were allot of events to deal with. Great society programs,food stamps, medical assistance, and air conditioning got people off the streets. Now the money is running out.The help that was once there is drawn down to the bottom. Unemployment money is running out, all other assistance programs will have funding issues. He is blind to this and his solution will always be to take from others when the pot boils over. He will still have the support of his followers who will take from their neighbors as well. The riots showed me that it doesn't matter what color or religion you are it's the belief that you have something of value. They will rob from a brother, sister, whoever to make things equal. Tipping point will be food or energy issues. The Dem's will blame everyone else and the the media will go along. The problem this time is they will make it worse with no bottom to this pit they have dug. Why? same voter support. Give me Health care, give me food stamps, give me a home, give me group now controls our elections. |
| Posted by: Dale 2009-07-20 09:54 |