Obama's Budget
Even the liberal media sources are talking about Obama's poposed budget being an increase over prior years. I just downloaded the whole thing from OMB, and here's some interesting facts:
The entire budget represents a $6.1 billion dollar increase, to $1.2 trillion. That's about 0.5%. So it's a teeny tiny increase over last year, overall.
Over 2/3 of the total budget ($842 billion) represents DECREASES from the prior year. The biggest to note is Defense, down $11.7 billion, and Homeland Security, down $9.9 billion. I was disappointed to see HUD decreased by $7 billion, and Aggie by $1.5 billion. These seem like bad places to cut. Though perhaps the cuts represent the government waste he was talking about.
The line items that are increased over last year are not terribly surprising: Energy went up $8.8 billion, which was one of his biggest campaign points. Health & Human Services shows a $7.9 billion increase. Other noteworthy items: Veteran Affairs is going UP by $4.3 billion, and Labor up by $0.9 billion. I need to check out one line item, "Department of State and Other International Programs". This is $47 billion, about 3% of the total budget, an increase of $6 billion from the prior year. I'm curious to see what all is entailed in that.
But really, folks, this is NOT a huge increase. I'm very angry that more liberal media sources aren't pointing this out.
The entire budget represents a $6.1 billion dollar increase, to $1.2 trillion. That's about 0.5%. So it's a teeny tiny increase over last year, overall.
Over 2/3 of the total budget ($842 billion) represents DECREASES from the prior year. The biggest to note is Defense, down $11.7 billion, and Homeland Security, down $9.9 billion. I was disappointed to see HUD decreased by $7 billion, and Aggie by $1.5 billion. These seem like bad places to cut. Though perhaps the cuts represent the government waste he was talking about.
The line items that are increased over last year are not terribly surprising: Energy went up $8.8 billion, which was one of his biggest campaign points. Health & Human Services shows a $7.9 billion increase. Other noteworthy items: Veteran Affairs is going UP by $4.3 billion, and Labor up by $0.9 billion. I need to check out one line item, "Department of State and Other International Programs". This is $47 billion, about 3% of the total budget, an increase of $6 billion from the prior year. I'm curious to see what all is entailed in that.
But really, folks, this is NOT a huge increase. I'm very angry that more liberal media sources aren't pointing this out.