From the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI)
President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress have gone on a spending and debt spree that the country cannot afford. As a result a spontaneous grassroots movement is emerging from every corner of the nation with a message for Congress and the president: Stop spending us into an inevitable spiral of debt and higher taxes … now!
To that end groups of Americans will be meeting in towns and cities across the nation on April 15 for Tax Day Tea Parties" (think Boston Tea Party not biscuits and fine English china). These Ten Tax Facts" are our effort to make sure the American people are well- informed as they gather together to express their concern about the direction Washington is headed.
#1 .Under the Obama budget the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the national debt will double over the next five years; and it will triple over the next 10 years to $17.3 trillion.
#2. Under the Obama budget CBO projects that the national debt will soar over the next 10 years from 40 percent of GDP today to a shocking 82.4 percent. (Ronald Reagan left office with the national debt at 42 percent of GDP).
#3. The presidents budget also states that total federal borrowing will grow by $2.7 trillion this year alone an increase of 27 percent in one year!
#4. The budget President Obama proposes for this year increases federal spending by an incredible 34 percent over the previous year with a total of $4 trillion in federal spending the highest ever.
#5. The federal budget deficit (not the national debt) would reach $1.845 trillion this year according to the CBO the highest ever. That would be more than seven times Reagans largest budget deficit of $221 billion which caused so much consternation among Reagans critics.
#6. The CBO estimates that this Obama budget deficit will total an astounding 13.1 percent of GDP more than one-eighth of the entire U.S. economy for the federal budget deficit alone! Under George Bush the federal deficit for 2008 was 3.2 percent of GDP. The deficit for fiscal year 2007 in the last budget adopted when Congress was controlled by Republican majorities was $162 billion or 1.2 percent of GDP.
#7. The Obama budget also includes $1 trillion in tax increases on the upper 5 percent of income earners mostly tax rate increases. But the top 5 percent of income earners already pays 60 percent of all income taxes.
#8. The Obama budget projects that revenues from the corporate income tax will more than double in 3 years increasing in fact by more than 124 percent.
#9. Another $645 billion tax increase comes from President Obamas anti-global warming cap and trade system which is essentially an energy tax on the production and use of carbon energy such as oil natural gas and coal.
#10. While the Obama administration claims to have cut $2 trillion from the budget over 10 years fully $1.5 trillion of those cuts" actually represents the troop drawdown in Iraq which was already scheduled to occur under the Bush administration. Of the remaining $500 billion in budget savings" fully $311 billion is categorized as interest savings" but is actually an additional tax increase on upper income earners.
Its not as if you cant stimulate economic growth while at the same time cutting government spending. President Reagan did it. Reagan adopted budget cuts soon after he entered office equal to close to 5 percent of the federal budget at the time.
Even with his defense buildup total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5 percent of GDP in 1983 to 21.3 percent in 1988 and 21.2 percent in 1989. Thats a 10 percent real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy. Reagans policies conquered inflation and started a 25-year period of economic growth which would look awfully good today.
