President Obama has proposed an average $41.7 billion in new government spending in each of his State of the Union addresses, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
In 2013, Obama proposed an $83.4 billion annual increase in net government spending. Obama’s proposals actually amounted to a $28 billion annual decrease in net government spending in 2012, The decrease mostly came from $49 billion in proposed spending cuts — the biggest cut Obama has proposed in a State of the Union address. A $75 billion mortgage relief program in 2009 was the costliest proposal under Obama, whose speech that year is counted by NTUF as a State of the Union address even though it technically was just an address to a joint session of Congress.
National Taxpayers Union Foundation analysts have calculated the cost of spending proposals in every State of the Union address since 1999. When compared to Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama’s 2013 call for $83.4 billion more in government spending is small. Clinton proposed $327 billion in new government spending in 1999. Bush proposed $134.6 billion in new annual spending in 2008, mostly for defense purposes. Excluding 2008, Bush only proposed $32.8 billion in new spending, on average.
Obama is widely expected to propose a community college program that would cost $8 billion in one year. He also wants to raise $320 billion over ten years by altering the capital gains tax and levying a new fee on the liabilities big banks hold. That revenue would be somewhat offset by an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, permanent extension of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and adjustment of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credits.
