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Politics & Current Affairs

White House Budget: Cynical, Unrealistic

The White House touts as tight-fisted a budget proposing a record $1.645 trillion deficit for fiscal 2011, due largely to a new surge in spending to 25.3% of GDP.
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This was supposed to be the moment we were all waiting for. After three years of historic deficits that have added almost $4.5 trillion to the national debt, President Obama was finally going to get serious about fiscal discipline. Instead, what landed on Congress’s doorstep on Monday was a White House budget that increases deficits above the spending baseline for the next two years. The White House actually touts as tight-fisted a budget proposing a record $1.645 trillion deficit for fiscal 2011, due largely to a new surge in spending to 25.3% of GDP. That’s more spending than in any year since 1945.

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President Barack Obama will propose a $3.8tr budget for fiscal 2011 that foresees the deficit hitting a record $1.6tr in the current fiscal year but falling by about 4% by 2013.

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