April 2010
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As their House allies are trying to find a way to avoid voting for a budget, Senate Democrats have decided to reveal only five years worth of their budget plan. By doing so, they’re attempting to hide the “sticker shock” of their government-knows-best binge spending that the CBO projects will drive our national debt to 90% of GDP. As Politico reports this morning, the decision by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, to ignore the final five years of the budget, makes it appear that he is cutting the deficit:
[T]he Congressional Budget Office estimates the net effect on the deficit over 10 years would be as high as $3 trillion. By confining his budget numbers to five years, Conrad avoids this sticker shock.
The most egregious part of Sen. Conrad’s plan is to not adjust the Alternative Minimum Tax for inflation after 2011. Starting in 2012, this would result in a massive tax increase on 33 million Americans, averaging $3,700 a year. Despite all these shenanigans, the Senate’s budget plan barely puts a dent in the cost of Obama’s bloated budget.
But this is a very small step relative to the size of the government. And in the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, Conrad’s projected deficit of $1.3 trillion is only modestly lower than the estimated $1.4 trillion shortfall for the current year. Only in 2013 would the deficit drop below $600 billion, settling around $545 billion two years later. Even this is dependent on enacting $114 billion in uncertain loophole closers — and a strict three- to four-year freeze on domestic appropriations that will be difficult to maintain.
Rather than stand against Obama’s misguided priorities, Democrats are employing a bevy of dishonest budget tricks and tax hikes in order to pay for his reckless spending, most notably, by raiding the wallets of the middle-class.