President Obama presented his 2015 budget proposal this week. To briefly summarize, The Wall Street Journal called it “the back to Pelosi budget” and Congressman Paul Ryan called it a “campaign brochure”, which is to say the same thing.
A return to annual economic growth in the 3-4% range is the only way out of this malaise, but this budget, like most of everything else Obama is proposing, moves further left and further away from policies that will incentivize growth. Spending would reach 21.4% of GDP, up from 20.8% in 2013, total outlays would increase by $450 billion, and total tax receipts will rise to 18.3% of GDP in 2015, a new record high. Meanwhile, decreases in defense spending, which should please Vladimir Putin. Enough said. This is all about redistribution, rewarding preferred constituencies, changing the conversation from Obamacare, and returning Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker’s office. Let’s hope it’s also DOA in the House, because it’s really not worth a lot of conversation.
