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WSJ finds $4.3 trillion hole in Obama’s budget

Posted 24 Oct 2008 in 2008 election, Barack Obama, economy, lies, taxes

Anyone who plans to vote for Obama needs to ask themselves the same question posed by Alan Reynolds in today’s Wall Street Journal. (h/t: Red County)

How’s Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion?
The most troublesome tax increases in Barack Obama’s plan are not those we can already see but those sure to be announced later, after the election is over and budget realities rear their ugly head.

The new president, whoever he is, will start out facing a budget deficit of at least $1 trillion, possibly much more. Sen. Obama has nonetheless promised to devote another $1.32 trillion over the next 10 years to several new or expanded refundable tax credits and a special exemption for seniors, according to the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center (TPC). He calls this a “middle-class tax cut,” while suggesting the middle class includes 95% of those who work.

Mr. Obama’s proposed income-based health-insurance subsidies, tax credits for tiny businesses, and expanded Medicaid eligibility would cost another $1.63 trillion, according to the TPC. Thus his tax rebates and health insurance subsidies alone would lift the undisclosed bill to future taxpayers by $2.95 trillion — roughly $295 billion a year by 2012.

But that’s not all. Mr. Obama has also promised to spend more on 176 other programs, according to an 85-page list of campaign promises (actual quotations) compiled by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
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A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Altogether, Mr. Obama is promising at least $4.3 trillion of increased spending and reduced tax revenue from 2009 to 2018 — roughly an extra $430 billion a year by 2012-2013.

How is he going to pay for it?
[...]
In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention on Aug. 28, Mr. Obama said, “I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime — by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens.”
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Nobody, including the Tax Policy Center, believes that is remotely feasible.
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Mr. Obama has offered no clue as to how he intends to pay for his health-insurance plans, or doubling foreign aid, or any of the other 175 programs he’s promised to expand. Although he may hope to collect an even larger share of loot from the top of the heap, the harsh reality is that this Democrat’s quest for hundreds of billions more revenue each year would have to reach deep into the pockets of the people much lower on the economic ladder. Even then he’d come up short.

Mr. Reynolds is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, and he cites lots of good information from The Joint Tax Committee, Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the National Taxpayers Union and the Congressional Budget Office. As one might expect, there’s much more to read.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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