Sticker shock? Obama's invoice to taxpayers
By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
February 27, 2009
 |
| Budget Director Peter Orszag, right, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, center, look on as President Barack Obama speaks about his fiscal 2010 federal budget on Thursday in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. (AP photo) |
Since his election, President Barack Obama has rolled out the most aggressive domestic spending proposals in American history. Some of Obama’s plans are spread over time, while others call for concentrated spending in the next several months. Either way, the tally between now and September of next year for Obama’s new programs and spending hikes will likely cause sticker shock.
Wall Street Bailout: The first $350 billion tranche of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was not a model of accountability or effectiveness, but Obama, just before taking office, called on Congress to release the second half. Cost: $350 billion
Stimulus: The largest spending bill in history is heavy on infrastructure and aid to states, and its “tax cuts” are really transfer payments from the IRS. Cost: $788 billion
Wall Street Bailout, Part II: After Congress passed the stimulus, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for an additional “stabilization” plan, including Federal Reserve loans of $1 trillion and another $1 trillion of bad-asset purchases. Cost: $2 trillion
Mortgage Bailout: Last summer, Congress bailed out the mortgage lenders, and now Obama wants to do it again. Cost: $275 billion
Children’s Health Insurance: Health insurers got a bailout when Congress expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan to include subsidies for middle-income children. Cost: $7 billion
Fiscal 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill: This funds the rest of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009. It includes 9,000 earmarks and an increase of 8.5 percent over last year’s levels. (Federal spending for the current fiscal year from October to this month was funded as a continuation of President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget of $2.9 trillion.) Cost: $410 billion
Obama’s Fiscal 2010 Budget:
» Discretionary Spending: After the record-breaking stimulus and the 2009 omnibus, Obama has also proposed the largest batch of appropriations ever. Cost: $1.368 trillion
» Mandatory Spending and Debt Interest: Expanding health-care entitlements will cost $634 billion in the long run. Cost: $2.173 trillion
TOTAL: $7,371,000,000,000
