Obama’s budget includes ‘Death Star’ savings

Published February 13, 2012 5:00am ET



Senate Republicans were quick to pounce on President Obama’s budget, even before its (delayed) official release today. A few takeaways from their fact sheet, released moments before the budget:

  • It spends $47 trillion over ten years.
  • It raises taxes by $1.9 trillion.
  • It spends $3.8 trillion in the next fiscal year.
  • Total national debt (including both public and government held) goes to $26 trillion by 2022.
  • By 2022, annual interest payments will be $1 trillion annually.

If you don’t think this budget looks like it contains Obama’s claimed $4 trillion in “savings,” then you’re not alone. So where did he get that number? It looks like the “Death Star budget” (i.e., “save” $20 trillion by not building a Death Star) has been included as well:

…over $2 trillion in savings already in law…including almost $1 trillion in “savings” from money that was never requested and never to be spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.