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AP: White House putting off release of budget update
By Rusty Shackleford | July 20, 2009
WASHINGTON — The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape.The administration’s annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama’s budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.
The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.
The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.
The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the “chances are high” of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.
….
The new budget update comes as the public and members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious over Obama’s economic policies.
A Washington Post-ABC News survey released Monday shows approval of Obama’s handling of health-care reform slipping below 50 percent for the first time. The poll also found support eroding on how Obama is dealing with other issues that are important to Americans right now — the economy, unemployment and the swelling budget deficit.
The Democratic-controlled Congress is reeling from last week’s testimony by the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, that the main health care proposals Congress is considering would not reduce costs — as Obama has insisted — but “significantly expand” the federal financial responsibility for health care.
My favorite part…
Late last week, Obama vowed anew that “health insurance reform cannot add to our deficit over the next decade and I mean it.”
Why only a decade? It’s okay to add to our deficit after a decade? Long-term vs. short-term ramifications perhaps? Ya gotta love bullshit artists!!1!
That is all.
Topics: Liberal Shenanigans, Bad Bills, Barack Obama, Zombie Apocalypse |
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