President Obama Proposes $4.1 Trillion Spending Plan in White House Budget, Congress Ignores It
President Barack Obama sent his budget proposal to Congress today, proposing a $4.1 trillion spending plan in the final White House budget for 2017. In the budget, the president details his views on how the country should fight the Islamic terrorists, fix the climate change problem, and how to further support technology and education, Bloomberg reported.
Obama wrote the following in the budget document.
“My budget makes critical investments while adhering to the bipartisan budget agreement I signed into law last fall. It also drives down deficits and maintains our fiscal progress through smart savings from health care, immigration, and tax reforms.”
Obama’s proposed budget also calls for a $10-per-barrel tax on oil to help fund “clean” transportation, increased financial aid for needy college students, and new research to cure cancer. It also requests $7.5 billion for the Islamic fight, which is a 50 percent increase and would include the purchase of 45,000 GPS-guided smart bombs, reports Voice of America.
Obama talked about the tax on oil when he announced his budget proposal.
“We’re going to impose a tax on a barrel of oil — imported, exported — so that some of that revenue can be used for transportation, some of that revenue can be used for the investments in basic research and technology that’s going to be needed for the energy sources of the future. Then 10 years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, we’re going to be in a much stronger position when oil starts getting tight again, prices start going up again.”
Obama’s $4.1 trillion proposed budget to Congress would increase the country’s already large annual budget deficit to over the half-trillion mark.
The proposal projects revenue to increase by $308 billion in the next year while spending is to increase by $196 billion. The president wants to raise $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years through tax law changes, which include eliminating benefits for high-income citizens and adjusting levies on international business income.
Reuters reports that the president’s budget is “largely a political document,” but it gives Obama a platform to pitch funding for issues he feels strongly about, such as job creation, criminal justice reform, and education. Although Obama leaves the presidential office in January, the budget also allows him to take credit for the boosted economic situation that occurred during his time as president.
Republicans swiftly reject Obama's "radical" $4.1T budget: https://t.co/mKtIDDpB1c pic.twitter.com/NGFCLnXbQd
— The Hill (@thehill) February 9, 2016
The budget year begins October 1, 2016, although it is highly doubtful that this budget will even be evaluated by Congress, let alone passed.
According to Bloomberg, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans pledged to block the plan even before it was released, saying that it was too expensive. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi commented on the plan.
“The president’s final budget continues his focus on new spending proposals instead of confronting our country’s massive overspending and skyrocketing $19 trillion in debt.”
In an unusual move, the White House budget director has not even been invited by Congress to come and speak about the proposal.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest spoke to reporters last week about the issues.
“Maybe they are taking the Donald Trump approach to debates about the budget. They are just not going to show up.”
However, the chairman of the House of Representatives’ Budget Committee, Congressman Tom Price, said Republicans will draft their own spending plan.
“…rather than spend time on a proposal that, if anything like this administration’s previous budgets, will double down on the same failed policies.”
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Obama proposes $4.1 trillion spending plan in final White House budget.
[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]
