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| Economy |
| Obama takes budget to congress |
| 2009-03-26 |
| Barack Obama, the US president, is heading to US congress in a bid to sell his proposed $3.6trn budget to members of his own party. Obama will hold talks with members of the Democratic party from the House of Representatives and senate as budget committees from both houses hold talks on his 2010 spending plan. Obama's congressional visit comes a day after he urged patience over his plans to boost the country's ailing economy. "We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience," Obama told a news conference in Washington on Tuesday. Since taking office in January, Obama has introduced an economic stimulus package, announced the proposed budget and pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial markets. The move comes as economic data released on Wednesday showed that new home sales had risen unexpectedly, with the US commerce department saying sales rose 4.7 per cent in February to 337,000 from a revised January figure of 322,000. However, January's sales results remained the worst on records dating back to 1963. Democrats in the House of Representatives have proposed slimming down the 2010 budget proposal to $3.45 trillion amid bipartisan concerns about worsening the US's record deficit. Budget chairmen in both the house and senate have already been forced by worsening estimates of the deficit to scale down Obama's requests for domestic programmes. On Wednesday Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, praised Democrats for their proposals over the budget, saying documents offered by the house and senate budget panels would bolster education and clean-energy priorities while also providing for an overhaul of the healthcare system. However, congressional Republicans - and some Democrats - say Obama has overreached and that the current budget and spending programmes could drive the country into unsustainable debt. |
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#2 Yes, our debt as a percentage of our GDP could some day exceed all the money our country produces at this rate. Some experts attribute the largest cost as Medicare/Medicaid Part D prescription drug coverage for Seniors. There is an interesting Frontline Edition at this link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/ Its well worth spending an hour to watch this---it examines how our deficit is already headed off the charts, and some reasons why. Although far from fair in doling out criticism, it was still thought provoking. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-03-26 15:55 |
| #1 We already have unsustainable debt. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-03-26 14:20 |