By Pete Sepp
(Alexandria VA) -- Even as he encouraged positive reforms like a freeze on a small portion of the federal budget and a more robust disclosure process for Congressional earmarks President Obama still called for at least $70.46 billion in new federal spending burdens on taxpayers according to a line-by-line analysis of his first State of the Union speech by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF).
Presidents often give laundry lists of proposals designed to please political constituencies in their State of the Union Addresses and President Obamas speech was no exception said NTUF Senior Policy Analyst Demian Brady who conducted the study.
But regardless of whats in the laundry bag the people left holding the bill for it all are the nations taxpayers. While the President should be commended for his newfound support of a spending freeze on one-eighth of the federal budget Americans wont be happy to learn that his other proposals would far outweigh any savings the freeze might provide said Brady.
Among the
findings of NTUFs analysis:
- President Obama outlined items whose enactment would increase federal spending by a net of $70.46 billion per year. Since 1999 when NTUF began tracking Presidential addresses the lowest recorded total was President Bushs address in 2006 coming in under $1 billion in new spending; the highest was President Clintons 1999 speech which proposed $305 billion in new outlays. Obamas speech last night amounted to $36 billion less than the $106 billion that George W. Bush offered in his first State of the Union speech in 2002.
- Obama outlined 21 proposals with a fiscal impact last night eight of which would boost spending three of which would cut them and 10 of which had
costs or savings that could not be pinpointed. The single largest item Obama mentioned was a call to pass cap-and-trade national energy tax legislation with an outlay cost of $51.5 billion (not including revenue increases or price hikes in energy bills). Other large initiatives included immigration reform ($9.8 billion) and subsidies for retirement savings among low-income Americans. Major undertakings with unquantifiable costs included a student loan forgiveness program and a new round of mortgage refinancing subsidies.
- President Obama was not able to address all of his planned spending increases in his speech yesterday. Among them were: a $44 billion increase in Defense spending the largest single-year request for federal funding in education ever (which will include up to $4 billion to reform No Child Left Behind) an increase in NASA spending and between $7-17 billion in new costs for the Department of Transportation (which does not include an additional $5 billion planned to continue a High Speed Rail project).
This analysis doesnt include huge potential burdens from big-government health care legislation a new stimulus plan or greater obligations to bailed out entities like auto companies and banks. While its clear we face enormous deficits as far as the eye can see taxpayers seeking specifics on the Presidents future direction of federal expenditures likely wont find a compass in last nights speech Brady continued.
Next weeks budget blueprint from the White House may fill in some of those blanks and Congresss own actions will do the same. Still many Americans are no doubt hoping that the words of encouragement theyve heard on addressing excessive government spending will soon transform into deeds Brady concluded.
Since 1991 NTUF has tracked the fiscal impact of proposed legislation through BillTally an accounting database that reports the net annual agenda cost for
each Member of Congress based on sponsorships and cosponsorships of pending legislation.
For this analysis NTUF matched Obamas proposals with those in the BillTally system and in White House documents.
NTUF is the research affiliate of the 362000-member National Taxpayers Union a non-profit taxpayer advocacy group founded in 1969. Note: For
a spreadsheet of cost estimates for Obamas State of the Union proposals along with analyses of past Presidential speeches visit
www.ntu.org.
