Obama sure does like to spend money. Back in 2009, his Stimulus bill managed to use up almost a trillion dollars. The budget he’s going to release this time around will request just under half a trillion dollars for American roads and bridges.
Juliet Eilperin and Ed O’Keefe of the Washington Post:
Obama budget: Tax on overseas profits to pay for U.S. roads and bridgesPresident Obama’s budget request set for release Monday includes plans for a six-year, $478 billion public works program that would be paid for with a one-time 14 percent tax on overseas corporate profits.Details of Obama’s budget plan released in recent days have been widely rejected by congressional Republicans. But finding a way to enact a new federal infrastructure spending plan has been an unattainable goal on Capitol Hill for several years. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) hoped to pass a new highway bill shortly after the GOP took control of the House in 2011 but has struggled to build support among skeptical conservatives.According to a document shared by administration officials on Sunday, Obama’s plan to rebuild the nation’s airports, bridges, highways and railroads would be paid for by imposing a 14 percent tax on up to $2 trillion in profits that companies have accumulated overseas over a number of years to avoid paying corporate income taxes. That’s far lower than the current top corporate tax rate of 35 percent. The one-time tax on the repatriation of foreign profits differs from other proposals to offer a “tax holiday” for companies that would pay a much lower tax rate voluntarily to help fund new road construction projects. Obama opposes such tax holidays.
One has to wonder if there are more “shovel ready” jobs available this time.
Spending is out of control, and as Carol E. Lee and Kristina Peterson of the Wall Street Journal have pointed out, Obama is exceeding spending caps:
Obama Budget Proposes 7% More in Spending Above Sequestration CapsPresident Barack Obama will propose government spending that is 7%—or $74 billion—over caps he and congressional Republicans agreed to in a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal over three years ago, a White House official said Thursday.Mr. Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget, due to be released Monday, will propose some $561 billion in defense spending and $530 billion in nondefense spending, the official said.The amounts exceed the levels set under the 2011 budget law by $38 billion for defense and $37 billion for nondefense, the official said.Mr. Obama is pointing to recent economic growth and national-security threats as justifications to exceed the caps, which he and congressional Republicans agreed to in the wake of a market-rattling fiscal fight over increasing the government’s borrowing limit.
In spite of all this, the administration is sending a misleading message that America’s financial situation is just great. See the tweet below, via Twitchy:
See? Everything is fine.
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