Of course, Obama’s budget is going absolutely nowhere. The GOP isn’t even going to bother sending it to committee. Why would they? Everytime it has been given a vote it goes down in flames, with even the vast majority of Democrats voting against his budgets. In fact, when the GOP forces a vote on Obama’s budgets, Dems complain that it is a stunt. Harry Reid wouldn’t even allow a vote on some Obama budgets. I wonder why? (via The Lonely Conservative)
(Investors) Budget: What is the federal government’s most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it’s not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It’s cutting checks.
Buried deep in the president’s annual budget are a series of tables that few ever notice, but that are incredibly illuminating when it comes to understanding the size and scope of today’s federal government.
The table shows how much money the federal government spends on what budget officials describe as “payments to individuals.†Obama’s budget puts the figure for next year at a mind-boggling $2.9 trillion out of a $4.1 trillion budget.
In other words, more than 70% of federal spending amounts to taking money from one set of pockets, and depositing it in another.
This is a figure that has been going up up up. It was 50% in 1991, and 60% in 2008. Where’s it going?
Surprisingly little of this money, however, helps the poor. Housing assistance, food stamps, welfare programs, and Medicaid comprise just 25% of all the payments to individuals.
The rest goes to middle class programs like Social Security, student aid, Medicare benefits, federal employee pensions and the like.
Among the fastest growing spending categories under Obama are Medicaid, which climbed 91% since he took office, food stamps and other nutrition programs (up 78%), Social Security (up 61%), and student aid, which shot up 55%.
And, of course, Obamacare, which grew from $39 billion to $112 billion. Remember when it was going to pay for itself? As The Lonely Conservative notes, “This is how politicians get elected, by bankrupting future generations.” Nor can this be blamed solely on Democrats, as Republicans are more than willing to play the “give other people’s money away” game.
