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Jewish World Review
Feb. 21, 2011
/ 17 Adar I, 5771
Obama team uses slippery words to tout budget
By
Byron York
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"This budget stands for the principle that we have to get our fiscal house in order," OMB director Jack Lew told the House Budget Committee this week. "We've put a plan forward that would get us to primary balance by the middle of the decade." You might ask yourself: What does that mean? Was Lew saying that the federal budget, which today is running a $1.65 trillion deficit, will be balanced in just a few years? Many listeners might take Lew's words to mean just that. But check again. Lew did not say the budget will be "balanced." He said it will reach something called "primary balance." It turns out there's a huge difference. A balanced budget means government revenues and spending are roughly equal. But a budget in "primary balance," according to the Obama administration, occurs when revenues and spending are equal -- excluding all the interest the government pays on its enormous debt. President Obama projects the budget will reach "primary balance" in 2017, when government revenues and spending will both be about $4 trillion. Problem is, the White House predicts interest on the debt that year will be $627 billion. So even though the budget will be in "primary balance," there will in fact be a deficit of $627 billion. "Primary balance" is no balance at all. By 2021, the White House projects interest payments will reach $844 billion, which is a lot of money to ignore. "Primary balance is a figment of our imagination," freshman Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney told Lew at the House hearing Tuesday. "Only in Washington could you run a deficit and claim it's balanced and somehow use the word ‘balance.' Mr. Lew, you couldn't do that anywhere else. They'd laugh you out of the room." Where did the White House get the idea of "primary balance"? It wasn't a widely-used term until late 2009, when the influential liberal think tank Center for American Progress published a budget plan touting the idea. "We proposed that the president and Congress adopt an intermediate goal somewhere between where we are now and full balance," says Michael Linden, the Center's associate director for tax and budget policy. "It was something that could be accomplished in a faster time frame." There's nothing wrong with that; the distance between a $1.65 trillion deficit and a balanced budget is very great, so getting even halfway there would be real progress. But Republicans strongly objected to the use of the word "balance." "I believe any American that heard that would believe that this budget balances," Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said when Lew appeared before the Senate. "It doesn't come close to doing so." For his part, Linden concedes that "primary balance" is "not full balance and nobody should pretend that it is full balance." But he argues the term is still useful. The point at which the government can pay for all the services and benefits it provides, and is running a deficit only for its interest payments, Linden says, is also the point at which the debt as a share of gross domestic product begins to stabilize.* That, too, would be a big improvement over today. But on Capitol Hill, Lew took things a step further, claiming that would mean "we stop adding to the debt." And President Obama himself, in his budget news conference Tuesday, said that by the middle of this decade, "We will not be adding more to the national debt." Just for the record: The government cannot run budget deficits of, say, $627 billion, or $844 billion, and not add to the national debt. Interest payments have to be made. Obama's words were so egregiously wrong that the watchdog website PolitiFact quickly labeled them false. "We think the president's statement is likely to mislead a lot of Americans about what his budget would do," PolitiFact wrote. The whole line of argument left Sessions amazed. "We add more under [the president's] plan to the national debt every single year," Sessions said Wednesday. "So how could this possibly be a position in which you will not be adding more to the debt? What world are we living in?" The budget debate is just beginning, but the administration's attempt to sell the idea of "primary balance," plus the claim that in just a few years we'll no longer be adding to the debt, left Republicans questioning the president's good faith. Now, it will take a significant White House course correction to change GOP minds.
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Previously:
02/15/11 Myth and memory: The battle over Reagan's legacy
02/07/11 Invoking Reagan, Palin says this is a time for choosing again
01/31/11 With each passing year, Reagan grows larger in the American political imagination
01/24/11 House GOP begins long drive to dismantle Obamacare
01/17/11 GOP gears up again to strip NPR of federal funds
01/10/11 To House GOP, illegal immigration is a jobs issue
01/03/11 Obamacare mess is legacy of Dems' moment of power
12/27/10 Smiling Dems will soon cry Washington is broken
12/20/10 Dems are earmark junkies but GOP goes straight
12/13/10 Needed: A more presidential Palin
12/06/10 With Dems in a funk, Obama charts a new course
11/29/10 Obama's poll numbers point to his defeat in 2012
11/22/10 Holder ignored risks of civilian terror trials
11/16/10 Dems love facts and science --- except when they don't
11/08/10 Obama, new GOP lawmakers are on collision course
11/01/10 New GOP star on track to defeat Dem legend Russ Feingold
10/26/10 If Dems lose, Obama will blame everyone but himself
10/19/10 Profligate Congress should read its own bills
10/13/10 Why Big Labor couldn't match Glenn Beck's rally
10/11/10 Trash-talking Democrat faces defeat in Florida
10/05/10 A GOP unknown in striking distance of Barney Frank
09/28/10 Administration inflates green-jobs numbers
09/20/10 In Delaware, GOP should target Dems, not O'Donnell
09/14/10 GOP Insiders Wary of Landslide Predictions
08/31/10 For Obamacare supporters, judgment day approaches
08/23/10 Obama has himself to blame for Muslim problem
08/17/10 Cut spending without cutting services? Start here
08/17/10 For Michelle Obama, extravagance dents popularity
08/09/10 Obama's zealous civil rights enforcer gets busy
08/02/10 A battle between Left and Right --- inside the GOP
07/26/10 GOP spoiling for fight over Berwick appointment
07/20/10 How long will the public tolerate Afghan war?
07/12/10 NASA's Muslim outreach: Al Jazeera told first
07/02/10 Legal complaint against Gore is detailed, credible
06/28/10 Obama and Dems heading for electoral disaster
06/21/10 Who told Obama drilling is absolutely safe?
06/14/10 Billions for green jobs, whatever they are
06/07/10 Sestak a no-go for any job. So what was the deal?
05/31/10 As economic worries worsen, White House puts on the glitz
05/25/10 GOP dilemma: Fight Kagan, or go along?
05/11/10 Enforcing nation's immigration laws would be a bargain
05/03/10 How Obama could lose Arizona immigration battle
04/27/10 What's behind the anti-Tea Party hate narrative?
04/20/10 As government expands, beware the post-office example
04/19/10 Who wins in 2010? Good luck reading tea leaves
04/12/10 GOP Obamacare strategy: Try repeal, then cut
04/05/10 Obamacare was mainly aimed at redistributing wealth
03/30/10 Message to Dems: People still don't like Obamacare
03/23/10 The coming consequences of Obamacare
03/16/10 Marco Rubio and the Republicans who love him
03/15/10 GOP hopes town halls take health care off table
03/08/10 Dems turn risky health vote into manhood contest
03/01/10 Why Obama defies the public on health care
02/22/10 South Carolina mulls 2012: Romney? Palin? Huck?
02/16/10 GOP winning war over Miranda rights for terrorists
02/09/10 Who are the 300 terrorists held in U.S. prisons?
02/02/10 Is Obama dissatisfied with being president?
01/19/10 The Republican dilemma: Good Michael or Bad Michael?
01/12/10 Now the lawmakers are figuring out what they didn't know
01/05/10 GOP deserves blame for Democratic excesses
12/29/09 Dems' dreams of a blue West begin to turn red
12/22/09 Why Dems push health care, even if it kills them
11/30/09 Dems' kamikaze mission: Health care by New Year's
11/23/09 Why it's a mistake to bring Gitmo prisoners here
11/16/09 Dems' slick fix: $210 billion of fiscal restraint
11/10/09 Obama can't be community organizer for the world
11/02/09 At key moment, Obama leaves health post unfilled
10/26/09 Fierce urgency' for jobs, not health care
10/12/09 Facts hurt Jennings in youth sex controversy
10/05/09 Amid terror threat, Dems chip away at Patriot Act
09/27/09 In Afghanistan, let U.S. troops be warriors
09/21/09 Under fire, Democrats abandon ACORN in drove
09/14/09 Dems stifle Republican health care plans
09/08/09 For Dems, a serious Charlie Rangel problem
09/07/09 Obama's speech: Wrong setting for a sales job
09/01/09 What happened to the antiwar movement?
08/24/09 Why Dems may jam through health care plan
08/17/09 GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010
08/10/09 The empty words of a journalist turned flack
08/03/09 Probe finds new clues in AmeriCorps IG scandal
07/27/09 Obamacare haunted by unkept promises of stimulus
07/20/09 Why the GOP failed the Sotomayor test
07/13/09 What the GOPers will ask Sotomayor
06/29/09 Serious questions remain for Mark Sanford
06/22/09 How GOPers can crack the AmeriCorps scandal
06/16/09 Worried about Sotomayor? Consider Andre Davis
06/08/09 Can Mitch Daniels save the GOP?
06/01/09 When the Dems derailed a Latino nominee
05/26/09 Why the GOP will defeat Obama on healthcare
05/19/09 Rosy report can't hide stimulus problems
05/12/09 The Reagan legacy is the man himself
05/05/09 Sen. Specter, meet your new friends
04/27/09 Ted Olson: ‘Torture' probes will never end
04/20/09 Who's Laughing at the Axis of Evil today?
04/14/09 Congress needs Google to track stimulus money
04/06/09 Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary
03/30/09 On Spending and the Deficit, McCain Was Right
03/24/09 It's Obama's crisis now
03/17/09: Geithner-Obama economics: A joke that's not funny
© 2009, NEA
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