Spendapalooza! Congress Passes $3.5 Trillion Budget

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Spendapalooza! Congress Passes $3.5 Trillion Budget

3 April 2009 6 Comments

deficit
BY: NCViking

While Obama’s budget rightly includes emergency war funding W’s budgets left out (about $130 B), this one is a head scratcher. In a time of tightening our belts and stimulus spending bills, Congress passes this whopper leaving virtually all Obama pet programs in tact. Republicans offered an alternative budget with spending freezes and different tax cuts but basically were ignored. The vote was along party lines.

From WaPo:

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama’s ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

Voting along party lines, the House and Senate approved budget blueprints that would trim Obama’s spending proposals for the fiscal year that begins in October and curtail his plans to cut taxes. The blueprints, however, would permit work to begin on the central goals of Obama’s presidency: an expansion of health-care coverage for the uninsured, more money for college loans and a cap-and-trade system to reduce gases that contribute to global warming.

Fiscal conservatives are still getting run over, continuing a trend set by George W. Bush and Denny Hastert. This is the ‘Change’ that is coming, a different way for the supposed ‘failed policies’ of the past – massive spending, wealth redistribution and social programs.

Here is Judd Gregg’s take when visiting the snake pit of MSNBC:

Funny, I seem to remember the last 25 years being one of unprecedented growth and prosperity, even in the Dumb Chimp’s years, with a record 54 months of GDP growth.

Mon Dieu!

Last 5 posts by NCViking

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6 Comments »

Still Proud said:

I spent the day looking for a small uninhabited island. At this point I would much rather let mother nature decide my fate. (2 had only 8 feet above sea level, a third was also claimed by Haiti) This kind of spending cannot be repaired. The “GREAT” one receives bad advice, or like his predecessor has decided he is the decider

# 3 April 2009 at 1:10 pm

The Arch City Madman said:

We’re just getting back to that great time in the 20’s and 30’s. Hold on for the ride!

# 4 April 2009 at 5:06 am

The Windy City Windbag said:

Heard an interesting story about the 1920’s. After WWI, Wilson had run up deficits to fund the war. Harding (for all his MANY faults) came into office and let banks and businesses fail. After that, we had the roaring 20’s. The cause of the Great Depression is debatable, and there might be some lessons to learn here. Just a thought…

The story I read was in a Pat Buchannan column. He is normally a blow hard protectionist in my eyes, but sometimes he provides info to me I did not know.

# 4 April 2009 at 12:33 pm

The Windy City Windbag said:

I guess it was called the “Forgotten Depression”, and it was in Pat’s latest column, Should We Kill the Fed which can be seen here. Here is the part I was talking about:

The “forgotten depression” of 1920-21 was caused by a huge increase in the money supply for President Wilson’s war. When the Fed started to tighten at war’s end, production fell 20 percent from mid-1920 to mid-1921, far more than today.

Why did we not read about that depression?

Because the much-maligned Warren Harding refused to intervene. He let businesses and banks fail and prices fall. Hence, the fever quickly broke, and we were off into “the Roaring Twenties.”

But, the Fed reverted, expanding the money supply by 55 percent, an average of 7.3 percent a year, not through an expansion of the currency, but through loans to businesses.

Thus, when the Fed tightened in the overheated economy, the Crash came, as the stock market bubble the Fed had created burst.

Herbert Hoover, contrary to the myth that he was a small-government conservative, renounced laissez-faire, raised taxes, launched public works projects, extended emergency loans to failing businesses and lent money to the states for relief programs.

# 4 April 2009 at 1:32 pm

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