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A report by the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the way the EU's 31 agencies manage their budgets. The findings are likely to fuel the debate about the usefulness of the bodies in a time of austerity. The report—sent on Wednesday (15 February) to the European Parliament and seen by EUobserver—analyzes the costs, financial management and "operational efficiency" of 22 out of the EU's 31 autonomous agencies. The agencies do studies on issues ranging from drug addiction to trademark registration and police co-operation. They are an object of national pride and hotly contested negotiations between member states...

Wisconsin budget committee approves $123 million in cutsBy Scott Bauer - Associated Press Updated: 02/15/2012 06:08:31 PM CST MADISON, Wis. - The Legislature's budget-writing committee approved slashing about $123 million across state government on Wednesday, with more than a third of those cuts falling to the University of Wisconsin System. The $64 million cut to the university is on top of $250 million in budget cuts the system took in the two-year budget passed last year. All of the new cuts, including those for the university, must be absorbed by July. The total amount of the cuts had been approved...

Democrats in tough races turn critical of Obama’s 2013 budgetBy Josh Lederman - 02/15/12 05:15 AM ET Democrats as a whole have commended President Obama’s budget proposal for 2013, but in a few telling instances, members of the president’s party are seeking a bit of distance. Those Democrats tend to come from red states where the president’s poll numbers are underwater, and their critique of Obama’s plan — or their choice to stay silent — could foretell reelection races where Democrats will run away from the president in the fall. Obama on Monday unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget that Republicans...

RUSH: Obama's budget director. What's this guy's name? (interruption) What? No, no, no. That's the chief of staff. This guy's name is Zients, Z-i-e-n-t-s. Anyway, he was being questioned by a Republican congressman from New Jersey today Scott Garrett, on C-SPAN3 and he's being asked questions about Obama's budget. And, for example, Scott Garrett says (paraphrased exchange): "Will there be a tax increase on those making under $200,000 in Obama's budget?" The budget director says, "No." Then Scott Garrett says, "Well, if it's a tax when a family doesn't buy a health insurance policy as mandated by Obamacare and they...

While headlines yesterday crowed and complained of the small rise in the budget and the focus on taxing the wealthy - which admittedly given the peak polarization in political parties is unlikely to actually move into legislation anytime soon - JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest finds perhaps the most controversial part of the proposal hidden deep in the report. While the JPM CIO notes the CBO baseline and alternative scenarios, it is the difference between the $293bn benefit (CBO estimate from last year) and the Administration's new estimate of $584bn that caught his eye as buried on Page 73 of the...

President Obama does not deserve to be reelected. By refusing to address the greatest challenge this nation faces – our financial security – Mr. Obama has failed the American people. Despite warnings from the IMF, the credit ratings agencies, China -- our principal foreign creditor -- and the American people, the president continues to offer up budgets and programs that ignore the dire trajectory of Medicare and Social Security spending, putting the future of this nation at risk. Let’s get specific. This week Mr. Obama set forth a budget calling for yet another trillion-dollar deficit, the fourth in four years....

[snip] Air Force Secretary Michael Donley met Tuesday with Michigan Reps. Candice Miller and Tim Walberg, who concerned about losing the A-10 mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. “Secretary Donley indicated that the Obama Administration is not open to making any alterations to their proposed cuts and all of the cuts outlined last week will be included in the budget the President plans to send to Congress next week,” the two Republicans said in a joint statement. Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, left a Thursday meeting with Donley still frustrated with the Pentagon’s plans for the Iowa National Guard’s 132nd...

Geithner: Tax hikes must be part of budgetBy Peter Schroeder - 02/14/12 01:18 PM ET Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told skeptical Republican senators Tuesday that it is simply not possible to correct the nation’s fiscal problems without raising taxes. Geithner defended President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal before the Senate Finance Committee and said the plan is the only option he sees for helping the economy and addressing the deficit without hurting the middle class. "I do not see how you get there if you are unable ... to contemplate and to embrace modest increases in revenue through tax reform," Geithner...

Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending. Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes. “Right now, we’re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent of Americans,” Obama said. “We’ve already spent about that much. Now we’re expected to spend another $1 trillion....

Obama: Not Raising Taxes is a Form of Government Spending By Fred Lucas February 13, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending. Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes. “Right now, we’re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent...

TAPPER: The president, when he spoke to students earlier today acknowledged that the numbers and the budget were so big, they were difficult to talk about. And to break them down, it would be along the lines of a family that makes $29,000 a year spending $38,000 a year, so taking on new debt — $9,000 in new debt, with a $153,000 credit card bill that they were not able to pay down. That would be a way for — like the average American to afford – to understand it. Does that seem responsible? CARNEY: I appreciate the analogy... TAPPER:...

Do you agree with President Obama's proposed federal budget? Yes, it's the best road to recovery Maybe, but it needs more spending cuts No. No new taxes Deficit spending spells disaster Other (tell us in the comments)

After Obama released his disastrous budget yesterday, I was looking through some of the historical budget data and came upon something interesting which really hit the importance of entitlement reform home.  If you look at outlays as a % of GDP, you see that discretionary spending (everything from wars to the Department of Education) has actually fallen over the last 50 years and is clearly not the source of government largesse, at least in terms of spending (regulations are a different story).  What really is busting the budget are the "mandatory" items like social security and medicare.  Just take a...

President Obama’s budget is bad for jobs, bad for seniors, and makes the economy worse. House Budget Committee And Senate Budget Committee Republican Summary Of President’s FY2013 Budget February 13, 2012 The President has not merely ducked from our fiscal and economic challenges, but—with his fourth straight budget flop—he has advanced policies that dangerously accelerate the crisis before us. His gimmick-filled budget fails to reduce the fast-rising debt, permanently entrenches unsustainable levels of government spending, and erects new barriers to upward mobility. His plan stifles economic growth, threatens the health and retirement security of millions of Americans, and commits the...

When animated television tyke Lisa Simpson had to announce a tax increase to the American public, she deftly called it a "temporary refund adjustment," avoiding any mention of the three-letter T-word. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration stole a page from The Simpsons last week, repackaging a projected deficit in his new budget as a conditional surplus -- all without using the D-word. But while Lisa earned accolades from the fictional voters who only heard her mention a "refund," it remains unclear whether Malloy effectively steered the political debate -- and media coverage -- away from the $424 million hole his...

Taking a pass on reining in government growth, President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan Monday, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to help pay the costs. The ideas landed with a thud on Capitol Hill. Though the Pentagon and a number of Cabinet agencies would get squeezed, Obama would leave the spiraling growth of health care programs for the elderly and the poor largely unchecked. The plan claims $4 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade, but most of it would be through tax increases Republicans...

Federal budgets are by definition political documents, but even by that standard yesterday's White House proposal for fiscal year 2013 is a brilliant bit of misdirection. With the abracadabra of a tax increase on the wealthy and defense spending cuts that will never materialize, the White House asserts that in President Obama's second term revenues will soar, outlays will fall, and $1.3 trillion annual deficits will be cut in half like the lady in the box on stage. All voters need to do is suspend disbelief for another nine months. And ignore the first four years. The real news in...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — In his 2013 budget proposal released on Monday, President Barack Obama has now fully embraced austerity as the recipe for economic success. Obama is no longer a Keynesian. Although the economy remains weak and unemployment is still elevated, Obama proposes the sharpest contraction in fiscal policy in more than 40 years. And, in the midst of those tax increases and spending reductions, he’s predicting a booming economy growing well above the economy’s long-run potential for the next six years — averaging an incredible 3.6%. Read our news coverage of the White House budget plan. In short, Obama...

Earlier today, Obama formally proposed his 2013 budget (link) which sees a $1.33 trn budget deficit in the 2013 fiscal year - more than the $1.296 trillion 2011 budget deficit, which unfortunately indicates that even with rather rosy assumptions, the deficit hole continues to grow, which also means that the debt plug will be higher in the next year compared to the prior, which in turn lends even more credibility to the US debt clock analysis which assumes a nearly 140% debt/GDP ratio by the end of a potential second Obama term. While that will likely end up being an...

President Barack Obama unveiled his budget proposal at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., Monday morning, saying, “The main idea in the budget in this: At a time when our economy is growing and creating jobs at a faster clip, we’ve got to do everything in our power to keep this recovery on track." He said his proposals would “invest in the things that will help grow our economy right now. We can’t cut back on those things that are important for us to grow. We can’t just cut our way into growth. We can cut back on the

Barack Obama rolls out his new budget today, one that includes a $1.39 trillion on-budget deficit in the fourth budget year of his presidency despite an election-campaign pledge to cut deficits in half by this time. The FY2008 budget, the last one signed by a President other than Barack Obama, had a projected deficit of $239 billion and an actual deficit of $641 billion, just for comparative purposes. Even if we don’t give Obama credit for the FY2009 budget which Democrats refused to pass while George Bush remained in the White House and completed in an omnibus bill signed by...

(Reuters) - Airlines and their passengers would pay up to $32 billion in new air traffic and security fees over 10 years, and grants to big airports would fall sharply under White House budget proposals on Monday aimed at deficit reduction. The Obama administration wants major carriers, their passengers, business jets and airports to pick up more of the costs of air travel and airport improvements that for years have been borne by taxpayers. New fees are sure to trigger strong opposition from airlines and other aviation groups who argue that the industry is already over-taxed and over-regulated. Ideas quietly...

President Obama sent Congress a $3.8T budget proposal Monday that he says is a “reflection of shared responsibility” and aims to pour billions of dollars in increased spending into the down economy to inject some immediate life there. Appearing at Northern Virginia Community College, Obama — who continued to hammer home his policies aimed at helping the middle class — said that while the budget he put forward included “some difficult cuts,” it aims to help the economic recovery accelerate. “The economy is growing stronger, recovery is speeding up and the last thing we can afford to do right now...

Did you see President Obama's new 2013 budget? It's filled with $1.5 trillion in tax increases for the rich. It appears that the president and his leftist cabal believe we are all stupid. They believe if you tell enough lies, the lies become fact. They spend all day, every day, trying to convince Americans that taxes on the rich are too low.

NEW YORK -- President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget. "We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said in his budget message.

US President Barack Obama will seek to raise taxes on the wealthy as he unveils his budget later, prompting an election year spending showdown with Republicans. The proposal includes $1.5 trillion (£950bn) in new taxes, much from allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire. He will also call for a Buffett Plan tax hike on millionaires, and infrastructure projects. The budget must be agreed between the White House and Congress. Mr Obama will address students at a college in Virginia on Monday morning as he outlines his 2013 spending proposal to Congress. Dead on arrival? The BBC's Steve Kingstone says the...

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew appeared on all five Sunday talk shows yesterday to defend the budget President Obama will release today. On two of those shows, CNN’s State of the Union and NBC’s Meet the Press, Lew flat out lied about the Democrats’ failure to pass a budget since Obamacare became law. First on Meet the Press, David Gregory asked: “Here’s a stat that a lot of people may not know, but it’s pretty striking. The number of days since Senate Democrats passed a budget is 1,019. Can you just explain as a former budget director, how...

.....At the same time, the president’s foreign aid request includes an entirely new $770 million account in 2013, described as the Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund with the purpose of advancing democratic and economic reforms in the region after the turmoil of the past year. The two initiatives come on top of the budget’s plan for an almost 50 percent, six-year increase in transportation spending, $231 billion of which would be financed not by gas taxes but war savings attributed to Obama pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Conservatives are sure to challenge this assumption and...

Drawing on $1 trillion in deficit reductions already negotiated in last summer's debt ceiling deal, President Obama's next fiscal year budget -- out Monday -- will call for an additional $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to go with $1.5 trillion in new taxes on corporations and high-income earners. The $4 trillion, 10-year spending plan -- the last Obama budget proposal before the presidential election -- uses savings from the Iraq and Afghanistan military withdrawals to drive down the deficit, pledges $476 billion over six years for infrastructure projects, $350 billion in short-term stimulus-style spending for job creation and $60 billion...

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Police turned tear gas and stun grenades on protesters outside Greece's parliament Sunday as lawmakers inside debated another round of austerity measures. Riot police dispersed many of the demonstrators, who were protesting plans for new cuts in government spending, wages and pensions in return for a new eurozone bailout of the debt-stricken country. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has urged approval of the deal, warning in a speech to the Cabinet Saturday evening of "social explosion, chaos" if it fails. "The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions or import basic goods" such as...

The White House has released their proposal for the Federal Budget for 2012. Before we discuss the 2012 budget, harken back to President Obama saying in 2009 that he will CUT the deficit in half by the end of his first term. His first term ends in January 2013, so he has less than a year to accomplish his promise. The projected deficit for 2012 is forecast to be $1.33 trillion, 2.6% higher than the $1.296 trillion deficit in 2011 and 16% higher than the $1.15 trillion projection released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) last week. This is a...

Obama budget sees increased deficitBy Erik Wasson - 02/10/12 06:07 PM ET President Obama’s 2013 budget due out Monday will estimate the deficit for 2012 to be $1.33 trillion, higher than the $1.29 trillion deficit in 2011, according to senior administration officials. The increase happens largely because the budget assumes enactment of a $350 billion stimulus package, including extension of the payroll tax cut. That package is a scaled-down version of the $447 billion American Jobs Act that Obama proposed in the fall. The budget estimates that the deficit in 2013 will be $901 billion. This means that Obama will...

WASHINGTON — In the final budget proposal of his term, President Obama on Monday will revive the deficit-reduction and job-creation proposals he first called for last September and forecast a $1.3 trillion deficit for this fiscal year that drops to $901 billion next year, administration officials said on Friday. The election-year budget calls for more than $350 billion in short-term spending and payroll-tax cuts to continue spurring the economy like those in the September plan, including proposals for infrastructure projects and subsidies to states to help keep teachers and first responders in their jobs, requests that Congressional Republicans have blocked...

There’s been a lot of discussion over whether we should have had a smaller or larger stimulus package. But a lot of these arguments leave a key question unanswered: How much stimulus did we actually pass? There was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, of course. That was the big gun. But after that, there were dozens of smaller measures passed. For instance: The White House only put a single year of expanded unemployment insurance into the original stimulus. They did that, in part, because they expected they would be able to get unemployment insurance extended on its own. That...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u24nH03NccI&feature=player_embedded

Despite the federal government's representations that mask where our money goes, the single largest portion of the federal budget is actually spent on defense, defense-related activities and our obligations to prior members of the military and their families. In total, these activities will exceed $1 trillion in 2012. And, like every other federal expenditure, 45 cents of every defense-related dollar will need to be borrowed. Yet almost no one of consequence in Washington, in either party, has had the courage to say “enough.” A lot of my friends on the right are not going to like this, but I put...

TAPPER: President Obama is going to be introducing his outline for a budget. Fed Chair Bernanke has said the lack of a budget having been passed by the Senate has had an adverse affect on growth because it’s created uncertainty. Harry Reid has said that he doesn’t think there’s a need to introduce a budget this year. Who does the president think is right, Harry Reid or Ben Bernanke? CARNEY: Well, I think the president will be presenting his budget. That budget has spending caps set based on the Budget Control Act. And his budget will reflect the need for...

The Republican-controlled House sought Wednesday to give President Barack Obama and his successors the line-item veto, a constitutionally questionable power over the purse that has been sought by Republican and Democrats alike. The legislation, expected to pass, would allow a president to pick out specific items in spending bills for elimination. Currently, the chief executive must sign or veto spending bills in their entirety. The president's choices for removal would then have to be approved by Congress. Congress has made several attempts in the past to enact line-item veto bills, saying that surgical cuts to spending bills are useful both...

Gas Prices Expected To Soar 60 Cents: How That Impacts Your BudgetBy: Diane Lee | News Channel 7 Updated: February 06, 2012 - 4:32 PM GREENVILLE, S.C. - For 16 years John and Clare Coulis have driven the 1200 mile journey to Ontario and back every May. When they started, gas was under a dollar. Now... "I think I want to occupy BP," he said with a laugh. In all seriousness, it is slated to get worse. Analysts predict prices will sour 60 cents from now until May. The main reasons: Oil refiners have cut back on production because of...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley may be more skilled at implementing President Obama’s agenda than the White House itself. The Democratic governor is bringing the same big-spending, high-tax and class-warfare policies to the Free State. It’s going to cost residents a bundle. Tough economic times have forced ordinary Americans to cut back in order to get by. Not so Mr. O’Malley, who spends $35.9 billion in the budget released last month. That’s up from $34.2 billion last year and $32 billion the year before that. As Maryland Business for Responsive Government points out, the general fund budget fattened 11.4 percent last...

Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature settled on a hastily revised state budget last June – after Brown had vetoed legislators' first version – and pronounced it to be balanced and timely. "My colleagues and I have voted on a responsible budget," Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, told constituents in a newsletter, adding, "While we have projected additional revenues, we have also identified further tough cuts if these revenues are not realized. We are charged with the responsibility to pass a balanced budget on time. Democratic lawmakers have done so." Dickinson wasn't alone in crowing to constituents...

It's been more than 1,000 days since the Senate has passed a budget, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unconcerned. In fact, he says he has no plans to bring a budget to the floor in 2012, either. He argues the 2012 budget is already done because last summer's debt-ceiling deal included a few spending caps. Essentially, Reid wonders: Why do we need a long-term spending plan when we can stumble into some spending caps here and there? The Hill was first to this story: “We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year —...

Reid: This year's budget is doneBy Vicki Needham - 02/03/12 06:00 PM ET Senate Democratic leaders on Friday said they do not intend to bring a fiscal 2013 budget up for a floor vote. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on Friday. Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued that the debt-limit agreement in August directs spending for the next year and said Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has already asked the heads of the...

DES MOINES — Legislative Republicans proposed Thursday to spend $182 million less than Gov. Terry Branstad’s $6.242 billion budget plan for next fiscal year and about $119 million under majority Senate Democrats’ targets by providing less money to education, human services and economic incentives and requiring state employees and elected officials to pay $200 a month for their health insurance coverage. All three competing and contrasting fiscal 2013 budget approaches offered by the governor and leaders of the split-control Legislature would fully fund spending commitments already approved last session, including a 2 percent “allowable growth” increase for K-12 public schools...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday criticized President Obama for opposing the GOP effort to repeal a key portion of the 2010 healthcare law. McConnell noted in his criticism on the Senate floor that the Obama administration itself decided the program is not financially viable. The House today is expected to vote to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a voluntary, long-term health program that the Department of Health and Human Services said in October had no viable path forward. “Yet for some reason, the president is unwilling to follow through on that conclusion...

If anyone is tired of the daily European soap opera with surrealistic tragicomic overtones, they can simply shift their gaze to the 8th largest economy in the world: the insolvent state of California, whose controller just told legislators has just over a month worth of cash left. From the Sacramento Bee: "California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today. The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state...

'The irony of this is the president’s policies do the exact opposite. We basically have this. The president can't run on his record. It’s a miserable record. He is not going to change his tune and moderate like say Bill Clinton did in 1996 because he’s really stuck with his ideology so he has no choice but to divide. So he is going to run a very decisive campaign for political gain and he has this concept of fairness and equality where he uses the kind of rhetoric we use, but the policies he's producing will result in crony capitalism...

Newt Gingrich has proposed a very aggressive, comprehensive, supply side, jobs and economic recovery plan. That includes an optional 15% flat tax, reducing the federal corporate tax rate to 12.5%, eliminating the tax on capital gains, abolishing the death tax, and immediate expensing for capital investment. The plan includes as well reforming the Fed to mandate that it follow a price rule to maintain a stable dollar without inflation. It would also slash regulatory costs and barriers, including repeal of Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Obamacare, replacing the EPA, and modernizing the FDA. It would especially roll back regulatory barriers to energy...

Pentagon budget: top 3 winners and losers As the Pentagon rolled out its budget preview Thursday, it stressed the tough work involved in cutting $487 billion over the next decade. But in Pentagon parlance, the word “cut” is a relative term. While the Defense Department’s base budget initially decreases from $553 billion this year to $525 billion in fiscal year 2013, it is still more than its $480 billion base budget in 2008, when US troops were in the midst of two wars. The budget will then rebound steadily to $567 billion in fiscal year 2017. With this in mind,...

After looking at Drudge's page, I thought I'd see what Reagan himself, either in his diaries, his autobiography, or his Edmund Morris bio, had to say about Newt. Very little. The ONLY reference in those three works is on p. 123 of Reagan's diaries in which Reagan was discussing the budget battles: "Met with a group of young Repub. Congressmen. Newt Gingrich has a proposal for freezing the budget at the 1983 level. It's a tempting idea except that it would cripple our defense program. And if we make an exception on that every special interest group will be asking...