Obama Weekly Address: This Labor Day, Lets Talk About the Budget, Saturday September 5, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, the President recognized Labor Day by highlighting the economic progress our country has made, and underlining what needs to be done to continue that growth. Our businesses have created 13.1 million new jobs over the past five and a half years, the unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in seven years, and seventeen states across the country have raised the minimum wage. The President stressed that to continue this progress, Congress needs to avoid a government shutdown that would hurt middle-class Americans and pass a responsible budget before the end of September. The President emphasized that Congress should not play games with our economy, and instead pass a budget that invests in our middle-class and helps those who work hard and play by the rules to get ahead.

Via: Whitehouse

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OBAMA DEMANDS REPUBLICANS FUND GOVERNMENT ‘WITHOUT TOO MUCH DRAMA’

Fresh from his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and a trip to Las Vegas, President Obama challenged Congressional Republicans to fund the government when they returned to Washington D.C., demanding that they send him a budget that he could approve.

He warned Republicans against shutting down the government calling it “irresponsible” especially if the budget included items that he would veto.

“You know eventually we’re going to do it anyway, so let’s just do it without too much drama,” Obama said lightly, referring to Congressional Republicans who caved to the White House every time budget season came around.

Obama alluded to some Republicans in Congress who expressed their desire to defund Planned Parenthood, even at the expense of a government shutdown.

“Let’s do it without another round of threats to shut down the government, let’s not introduce unrelated partisan issues,” Obama lectured. “Nobody gets to hold the American economy hostage over their own ideological demands.”

Obama also requested more spending on military, scientific research, infrastructure, education, and public health, warning that he would not sign a budget that included spending cuts that locked in the sequester.

He argued that it was up to Congressional Republicans to keep the “economic momentum” of his second term as president moving forward.

“Pass a budget, prevent a shutdown, don’t wait till the last minute … get it done,” he concluded.

Via: Breitbart

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Obama Weekly Address, Saturday August 22, 2015

Weekly Address: It’s Time for Congress To Pass a Responsible Budget

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, the President spoke to the economic progress that our country has made, from 13 million new jobs created over the past five and a half years, to 17 states raising the minimum wage. Congress needs to do its part to continue to help grow the economy, but instead left town last month with a great deal undone. Congress failed to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank, which enjoys bipartisan support and is tasked solely with creating American jobs by growing exports. And most pressingly, the Republican Congress failed to uphold their most basic responsibility to fund the government, leaving them only a few weeks once they return to pass a budget, or shut down the government for the second time in two years. The President made clear that Congress needs to get to work on behalf of the American people and reach a budget agreement that relieves the harmful sequester cuts and keeps our economy growing

Budget deal wins final Senate approval, heads to Obama's desk

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan budget plan won final approval in Congress on Wednesday, with the Senate passing the hard-fought compromise.

President Obama was expected to swiftly sign the measure, which cleared the Senate 64 to 36. Nine Republicans joined all Democrats in approving the measure. Three Republicans who voted to advance the bill earlier in the week voted against it Wednesday. The House overwhelmingly passed it last week.

The $85-billion package is modest in scope but represents a rare bipartisan achievement for a divided Congress that has spent the past two years engaged in high-stakes standoffs over government budgets.

Under the accord reached by Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice presidential nominee, and Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), spending for 2014 and 2015 will rise by $63 billion, reversing some across-the-board cuts to defense accounts and social programs that only the most conservative lawmakers wanted to keep.

PHOTOS: 2013's memorable political moments

The increased spending was opposed vehemently by conservative groups, who split the GOP as they tried to stop the deal. It will be paid for with new fees on airline travel to pay for transportation security, as well as reductions in the pensions of new federal employees and younger, uninjured military personnel. There will be no new taxes.

Via: LA Times
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RYAN BUDGET DEAL MAY HIKE TSA FEES

Congressional Budget Committee chairs Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray are working to finalize a deal on the federal budget. Reportedly, the two are just "a few billion" away from an agreement to fund government and replace the automatic sequester cuts. The deal may also increase government revenue through higher "fees" for airline security and other government services. This idea should never get off the ground. 

“That sort of thing is a user fee, it’s not a tax,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a party to the negotiations. “It’s not something that I would have an objection to as a tax increase. But we’ll see where [Ryan and Murray] end up.”

Calling higher government revenue a "fee" rather than a "tax" is mostly a distinction without a difference. Money to pay a fee still comes from a consumer's wallet, not some magical "fee" account. 

Reportedly, Ways and Means Chairman Rep. David Camp, has briefed several Republican colleagues about the possibility of including "revenue raisers" in any budget deal. As if the federal government had a revenue problem.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, government revenue currently equals about 15% of GDP. Next year, the amount the government takes out of the economy will spike to 17.5%. Over the next two decades, the government's take will gradually increase to equal 19.5% of the economy, higher than its historical average. Over the past 4 decades, government revenue has averaged 17.5% of the overall economy. 

If anything, the government should be trimming its revenues. 

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Ryan: No need to worry about another shutdown

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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that the country doesn’t need to worry about another government shutdown in January when the current stopgap spending bill runs out.

 

The government shutdown lasted for 16 days in October, after Republicans demanded that President Obama defund his signature healthcare law.

 

To avoid another shutdown, Ryan said either he and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would strike a budget deal or Congress would pass a stopgap keeping existing spending levels.

 

“Either of those two scenarios will prevail, and we will not have a government shutdown,” he said at theWall Street Journal annual CEO Council. “We will keep the government funding at the current level if need be.”

 

Ryan said that he does not believe there will be any brinkmanship over the debt ceiling in February either. He said Republicans now understand that a shutdown won’t stop ObamaCare because it is a mandatory program, not a discretionary agency budget line item. 

 

“ObamaCare is an entitlement, they are not related,” he said. 

 

Ryan said that some progress has been made with Murray, but fundamental disagreements remain over entitlement reform, taxes and whether a deal would cut the deficit below the current path. 

 

“We are farther than we were when we started,” he said, adding that “they [Democrats] are signaling they are not willing to do entitlement reform in any form.”

 

He also argued that closing tax loopholes now would hurt bipartisan attempts to reform the tax code. Deficit reduction from such changes should be used to lower rates, he argued.

 

“If we take tax loopholes and put them in this budget process, we are shortchanging tax reform,” Ryan said.

Via: The Hill

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[VIDEO] Obama Weekly Address - Passing a Budget that Reflects Our Priorities - Saturday November 2, 2013

In this week’s address, President Obama says that in order to keep growing the economy and creating good jobs, Washington must end its cycle of manufactured crises and self-inflicted wounds. It’s time for both parties to work together to pass a budget that reflects our priorities – making smart cuts in things we don’t need and closing wasteful tax loopholes, while investing in areas that create opportunities for the middle class and our future generations.

Via: WhiteHouse.gov

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[VIDEO] Just One Dollar Less: Why Washington’s Budget Will Be $150 Billion More in 2014

What would happen if lawmakers took this year’s budget, subtracted $1, and made that the budget for next year? Let Freedom Ring made this video asking policymakers to do just that:

If lawmakers did this, they would need to cut the 2014 budget by nearly $150 billion. That’s right: Federal spending is already projected to rise by nearly $150 billion in fiscal year 2014. So even keeping the budget the same would, essentially, “cut” the budget by nearly twice the amount that sequestration cut in 2013.

According to Let Freedom Ring’s own polling, 80 percent of the public would support such a commitment.

But instead, spending just keeps going up. Only 4 percent of Americans polled favor increased spending, making Congress, with its whopping 9 percent approval rating, twice as popular as a larger budget.

The ongoing budget conference is an important opportunity for lawmakers to agree to reduce spending in the near term, and most importantly, the long term. Discretionary spending is approved annually by Congress and makes up around one-third of all federal spending. Mandatory programs constitute roughly two-thirds of federal spending and are for the most part not included in annual appropriations; they automatically rise to accommodate new beneficiaries and changes in program costs—rising with changes in the cost of living and the cost of health care, for example. So this is where the budget conference should focus.

Via: Foundry

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Reid Slams New House GOP Debt Limit Offer

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday he was “blindsided” by news that House Republicans were moving forward on their own debt limit bill and “disappointed” in Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, for doing so.

Reid said on the floor that the new House GOP plan — which includes a number of Obamacare-related provisions and omits instructions for a budget conference — is “unproductive” and “a waste of time,” suggesting its only purpose was to cater to tea party conservatives and preserve Boehner’s speakership.

“I know I speak for many of us who have been working in good faith when I say that we felt blindsided by the news from the House, but this isn’t the first time. Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate’s bipartisan progress with a will that can’t pass the Senate … and won’t pass the Senate,” Reid said. “I am very disappointed with John Boehner, who would once again try to preserve his role at the expense of the country. I have worked hard to rise above partisanship, to find common ground in the Senate.”

Reid singled out a provision in the Senate-brokered bill to require a budget conference to produce a framework before Christmas. He called that a sign that senators are serious about tackling the larger fiscal issues that members of the House are not.

House Republicans had demanded a conference on a short-term continuing resolution as part of their post-shutdown strategy, but 15 days into a shutdown and two days before a default deadline, they apparently have little appetite for a larger bipartisan, bicameral negotiating group.

“For weeks, Republicans have claimed they want to negotiate, but their legislation completely ignores the need to work together to craft a budget and put our country on a fiscally sustainable path,” Reid said.

Reid’s comments were in line with sharp criticism from the White House, which released a strongly worded statement moments before Reid took the floor.

Via: Roll Call

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Sen. Corker: 'No Common Ground' in Budget Talks

The White House and a breakout group of eight Republican senators have been unable to find agreement in their attempts at reaching a bipartisan budget deal, separated by long-standing differences over whether to only reduce spending on large benefit programs or whether to combine those cuts with increased tax revenue.

Following a meeting Thursday in the White House, one of the Republicans, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said the talks had gone nowhere.

"It's pretty evident that there's no common ground right now," Corker said.
The White House described the talks as candid and helpful. Obama has insisted in the past that a big deal over the budget had to include closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy.

The eight senators, some participating by teleconference, met in the White House Situation Room with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors and budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell. The group last met at the White House four weeks ago.

At the conclusion of Thursday's meeting, no future meeting was scheduled.

The setback comes just ahead of negotiations designed to avoid a government shutdown after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and about six weeks before the administration says the government will hits its borrowing limit.

Both the White House and congressional Republicans are bracing themselves for a confrontation. While both sides believe they might avoid a government shutdown with a stop gap measure in September, neither side has yet figured out how to extend the debt ceiling after it hits the $16.7 trillion limit.
Via: Newsmax

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Watch Obama Botch the Debt Negotiations. Again. There's an easy way to best the GOP. The White House isn't using it.

How should Obama approach the next installment of our ongoing fiscal groundhog day?

The administration itself appears to be confused on this question. While the White House insists it won’t negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, negotiation appears to be precisely what it’s up to. Politico reports that White House officials are meeting with Republican senators on Thursday to explore a deal that would simultaneously fund the government past the September 30th end of the fiscal year, replace the sequester with a more sane combination of spending cuts and revenue, and raise the debt ceiling before it crushes us in mid-to-late October. 

his, to employ a clinical term, is nuts. Whether or not the White House maintains its no-debt-ceiling negotiation stance within these talks, the whole construct throws the GOP a lifeline where none would otherwise exist. After all, the Republican leadership knows it would be suicidal to force a debt-default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. It also knows that forcing a government shutdown by failing to fund the government past September 30th would be politically disastrous. (John Boehner has said he believes it could cost Republicans their House majority.) But, of course, rank-and-file Republicans in Congress are demanding that their leadership hold the line on at least one, and preferably both, of those issues. The right-wingers want their leadership to balk at keeping the government open unless they can first defund Obamacare, and to resist raising the debt ceiling unless they extract massive additional spending cuts, particularly from entitlement programs.

Via: New Republic

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