Obama’s 2012 Budget

   From what I have gather thus far, the liberals dislike most of the budget proposals because the poor will suffer more than need be, and the conservatives dislike the plans because not enough is cut from the budget according to them.

CNN

Outraged liberals called it a callous assault on the poor; dismissive conservatives labeled it a debt-riddled assault on future generations.

  Obama’s 2012 budget would cut  the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years with 2/3 coming from reductions in spending and the rest from tax increases.

The plan includes a five-year freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending. Some programs, such as low-income heating assistance, would face the budget knife. New limits would be placed on deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable contributions.

   Even with some annual deficit trimming, this budget will still add $7.2 trillion to the national debt by 2021. That will be the same time that I hit my “ retirement age,” and I will be able to draw from my Roth IRA, which will be worth not to much by that time, at the current earning levels in the stock market amongst middle/lower class earners.

  So who is not happy with the budget plans?

"Every cut to necessary programs ... needs to be judged in the context of the unnecessary tax cuts for Wall Street millionaires that passed at the end of last year," the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said in a statement, referring to Obama's deal extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two more years.

"We must make bigger investments in America's future starting now -- and ask the Wall Street millionaires who got us into this mess to do more to help pay for it."

The PCCC counts hundreds of 2008 Obama campaign staffers among its members.

Obama "says that he wants to work with us to begin reining in spending, but ... (his budget goes) in exactly the opposite direction," said New Jersey Representative Scott Garrett, a top House Budget Committee Republican. "Today is Valentine's Day, but I don't know if this is the card that America was hoping to get from the administration. It's a card that says you owe more to the federal government."

   No entitlement reforms are proposed for either Social Security or Medicare at this time. Obama and the Republicans are placing that issue on the back-burner for now. There will be day of reckoning in our future, especially with Medicare. Voters aren’t concerned yet, but they will be.

But roughly 80 percent of Americans would rather prevent significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security than reduce the deficit. Overwhelming majorities also shy away from cuts in education, veterans' benefits, infrastructure spending or aid to the unemployed.

Cut, but not too much. And steer clear of the most popular programs.

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On paper, at least, the broader electorate appears to be embracing positions fairly closely in line with an administration now gearing up for a tough re-election fight.