President Walking in Opposite Direction of Fiscal Responsibility
Last week, President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2015 was officially released. Unfortunately, the proposal was yet another display of his refusal to tackle the serious fiscal issues of our day. Rather than recommend ways to slow down federal spending, the president instead presented a budget blueprint that would allow the government to grow even larger, impose a greater tax burden on hardworking families and still never achieve balance.
While the United States has experienced a federal budget deficit (difference between spending and tax revenue) in all but four years since 1973, the acceleration of federal spending during the Obama Administration is especially alarming. Since the president was first inaugurated in 2009, the nation has spent $17.6 trillion and added $6.8 trillion to the national debt. However, since Republicans gained majority in the House, we’ve reduced the deficit during the last three years and cut discretionary spending four years in a row—this is the first time since the Korean War that’s occurred.
Even though the gap between spending and revenue has improved some, every year we’ve still seen spending patterns that far exceed revenue brought in. This behavior is unsustainable and can only continue to be corrected with common sense reforms and spending cuts.
Despite the glaring fiscal reality, the president has chosen to ignore reforms that would put us back into balance. Rather than find ways to change our spending patterns, he has instead called for even higher spending levels in his latest budget proposal. In fact, his recommendations for FY 15 would cause total spending to increase by 63 percent over the 10-year budget outlook.
The president's decision to turn his back on fiscal responsibility is disappointing, particularly since he recommended ways to cut spending and reform entitlements in his budget last year that have now been abandoned. In particular, we’ve discovered that the president has chosen to ignore his previously recommended changes to cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other programs, which garnered Republican support.
On top of more spending, this year’s budget proposal would impose even more taxes on hardworking American families, but this new tax burden wouldn’t be solely committed to deficit reduction. In fact, about half of the $1.8 trillion the president recommends for taxes would go toward new programs.
While revenue is often seen as a way to bring down the deficit, it is not the only solution or an effective solution. Considering that the nation’s economy already runs a deficit of more than $514 billion, this is not the time to fund new programs—regardless of their value. Besides, even with the Administration’s proposed tax increases, the budget would never come into balance. Rather than impose new taxes yet again and increase the financial burden on hardworking Americans, the president should look for ways to reform wasteful spending. Without such reforms, new taxes have no grounds whatsoever for consideration.
We are a nation drowning in more than $17.4 trillion of debt, but our president has proven through each of his budget proposals that he would rather delay the difficult choices and shift the responsibility to his successor. That is not the type of presidential leadership Americans expect from their highest elected official. It is, in fact, the abdication of presidential responsibility.