Obama’s 2011 budget

The President proposes to spend $3.8 trillion of your money in the 12 months between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011.  Some will focus on the $1.6 trillion deficit this will create just for the 2011 budget.  We are told that amount of government spending is unsustainable, particularly when coupled with the $1.4 trillion deficit Obama gave us in 2010.  But, to a simple person like me, it is hard to get my arms around these numbers.

What exactly is $3.8 trillion reduced to something I can understand?  I did some research, and, what I found is not pretty, but, I can now put the President’s 2011 budget in perspective.

Using IRS income tax figures from 2006, let’s  assume the government “confiscated” all of the taxable income from all taxpayers earning more than $75,000.  That would mean that every single taxpayer earning more than $75,000 would be left with about $9,000 to live on.  It would be somewhat more if you had dependents and could itemize your deductions.  The rest would go to the government.

If that were done, the government would collect taxes of slightly over $4 trillion, barely enough to cover Obama’s 2011 budget, and, with what is left over, making little dent in Obama’s 2010 $1.4 deficit.

Of course, that was 2006 when unemployment was low and income was high.  We don’t have that now.  So, taking every taxable dollar from every taxpayer earning more than $75,000 probably wouldn’t come close to covering Obama’s 2011 budget.  Forget the concept of “leaving debt for our children and grandchildren”, this debt is today, and we will have to pay for it today.

There is only one logical option.  Government spending, much like our own has, must be reduced.  No pork, no special interests, we’re talking about responsible leadership.  Any member of Congress, regardless of their political affiliation, that doesn’t vote to cut spending by at least 25%  has no business in Congress.

Remember that in November.

Posted in ,

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

5 Comments

  1. donh on February 4, 2010 at 7:21 pm

    There is an amount of deficit we can borrow without provoking  financial calamity. A safe deficit should not exceed the amount  paid  in interest on the national debt, which approximates 200 billion. The interest paid  on the  debt is the amount of money  bond holders have to loan back to America  as reinvestment of yield. Borrowing beyond this sound   limit requires  financial  resources to be drawn  from the world economy  or by slight of hand such as printing money to buy bonds. Trillion dollar deficits are destroying a good game of running a couple hundred billion in deficits no problem years into the future. The life expectancy of this debt machine is being drastically shortened to where the breaking point can be seen in the near term . Busting the system  risks  hurting millions of people depending on our solvency.



    • pauldow on February 5, 2010 at 5:03 am

      To quote those esteemed philosophers, R.E.M. "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."



  2. Dimsdale on February 5, 2010 at 6:11 am

    The word "budget" always implied fiscal restraint to me, a term that could never be applied to our pres and congressional dems.

     

    Maybe Obama should just call it his "2011 Deficit"…..



  3. donh on February 5, 2010 at 10:42 am

    I also see Mr President did not wear a neck tie at his budget  press announcement . I agree with Jim when he says "wear a tie". How especially true when you are demanding the world loan you yet another trillion dollars. The least you could do is dress your best.  Creditors take  note of  such details.



  4. Anne-EH on February 6, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Our government at work, spending OUR MONEY!



The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.