How Can Obama Cut The Deficit In Half?

Amongst his many pledges before taking office, Obama’s claim that he would cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term, was perhaps the most ambitious.

Now in office however, he continues to introduce one new spending proposal after another, and as he does so, the country’s deficit continues to grow at an unsustainable rate, and the American people are showing increasing concern.

Just the health care reform plan alone is likely to more than double the already huge 2009 deficit which is now expected to exceed $1.8 trillion, but Obama claims that the plan will somehow remain deficit neutral;

"Like energy, this is legislation that must and will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings, and efficiencies within the health care system", he said last Tuesday, June 23 2009.

According to recent polls however Americans remain largely skeptical.

A New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 60% of Americans don’t believe the president has a strategy to reduce the deficit.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggested that 58% of Americans want the president to give controlling the deficit, a higher priority than a speedy economic recovery.

Obama said in a recent interview that the deficit issue is something that keeps him from sleeping at night, and added;

"There’s no doubt that we’ve got a serious problem in terms of our long-term deficit and debt. I make no apologies for having acted short-term to deal with our recession".

And so it should keep him awake, because the numbers are mind blowing;

The fiscal stimulus bill, $787 billion

The "place holder" for additional financial stabilization funds, $125 billion

The homeowner stability program, $75 billion

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program Re-authorization between 2010 and 2019, $38 billion

The Cap and Trade program for 2020, $22 billion

The money for these programs will supposedly come from;

Savings from the war in Iraq when it comes to an end, whenever that happens.

Doing away with unnecessary, inefficient, and as yet unnamed government programs.

Taxing Americans who earn above $250,000

However, JD Foster who is an economist at the Heritage Foundation says;

"Raising taxes is the obvious answer. I think there’s no question that we might want the rich to pay more in tax, but there isn’t enough money among the rich to tax it all and really make a significant dent in the deficits that we’re facing. That’s just not going to work. We’re going to have to try something else, either raise taxes on the middle class because that’s where the bulk of the money is. Or we’re going to have to start getting serious about cutting spending".

Various articles appeared on blogs during the election campaign that questioned Obama’s impossible sounding tax and funding proposals, but they were buried by the main stream media’s push to get him elected.

Understanding The Tax Cuts

Obama And The Magic Kingdom

More and more people are now crying out that Obama is far more liberal than they expected him to be, but if they’d done more than read headlines, and listen to campaign speeches, they would have known that he was irrefutably  linked to the Far Left ‘New Party’ (read communist party) less than 12 years ago.

Related posts:

1. Does Obama’s $8.6 Trillion Deficit Worry You?
2. Forget The Deficit! Interest On The Debt Is The Problem!
3. The U.S. And The E.U. Are On An Economic Collision Course.
4. Tarp And Its Tentacles Could End Up Costing $23.7 Trillion
5. The ‘Loan Modification Program’ Finally Gets Underway.

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