"Though the President has said his budget plan would help 'pay down the debt' and represents a “balanced approach” to $4 trillion in deficit reduction, both his budget and his fiscal cliff proposal offered by Secretary Geithner achieve only $400 billion in 10-year savings—meaning that the United States will accumulate $8.6 trillion in new gross debt instead of $9 trillion. Rather than using higher taxes to reduce the deficit, the President’s $1.6 trillion tax hike funds a $1.2 trillion spending increase consisting of: new stimulus measures (at a cost of $50 billion), an unpaid for “doc fix” (almost $400 billion), a continuation of the payroll holiday ($90 billion) and extended unemployment insurance ($26 billion), and, most significantly, the complete repeal of half of the BCA spending cuts. All these increases are only partially offset by a $600 billion spending cut, resulting in a net $1.2 trillion spending increase. His tax increase thus nets only $400 billion in reduced deficits, allowing the debt of the United States to climb past $25 trillion over the next decade."
That ladies and gentlemen is Obama's idea of "balance."
Is it any wonder no one is taking his proposals seriously?
H/T TWS and US Senate Committee on the Budget/Charts