Friday, April 12, 2013

Heritage: What's Really In Obama's Budget? $1.1 Trillion Tax Increases, Zero Spending Reductions

By Susan Duclos

Heritage provides the chart and the explanation of the bottom line totals of Obama's budget proposal:

Here’s the math:
  1. The President increases spending by $1.1 trillion by cancelling sequestration. Sequestration, the automatic spending cuts adopted in the Budget Control Act of August 2011, is already in effect. Thus, cancelling these reductions in spending increases spending by $1.1 trillion over 10 years.
  2. The President reduces spending by $1.1 trillion. The President lists a number of additional spending reductions based on a December offer to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH). These total about $1.1 trillion and are completely offset by the cancellation of sequestration.
  3. The President raises taxes by $1.1 trillion. The official total tax increase in President Obama’s budget is available in the Treasury Department’s “Green Book.” Treasury scores the total net tax increase from all President Obama’s tax policies at more than $1.1 trillion over 10 years.

Obama's 244-page proposal is embedded here.