Blogs > February 1, 2010: President Obama unveils the 2011 Budget

Feb 3, 2010

February 1, 2010: President Obama unveils the 2011 Budget



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THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY:

IN FOCUS: STATS

  • Poll: Many Republicans Think Obama Is A Racist, Socialist Non-Citizen - News One Black America, 2-2-10
  • How does Obama's 2011 projected deficit compare?: The estimated $1.27-trillion deficit in 2011 is down from a record $1.56 trillion this year... - LAT, 2-1-10

THE HEADLINES....

  • Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July: America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday that Al Qaeda and its affiliates had made it a high priority to attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months. The assessment by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, was much starker than his view last year, when he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the “primary near-term security concern of the United States."... - NYT, 2-2-10
  • Obama hits road to sell small business lending fund: Money repaid by Wall Street firms would go to community banks in effort to help companies add workers, president says... - Chicago Tribune, 2-2-10
  • Democrats to Unveil Jobs Package; Spending Fight Looms: Senate Democrats are preparing to release a roughly $80 billion jobs program this week, but its prospects are uncertain in a political landscape where voters are angry about unemployment yet fuming about federal spending.... - WSJ, 2-2-10
  • Rangel: Lawmakers Writing Compromise Health Bill Rep. Charles Rangel says lawmakers have started writing compromise health care bill: Leading lawmakers hoping to revive President Barack Obama's stalled health care overhaul have started writing a compromise bill, but it's unclear when the legislation will be ready for votes, a top House Democrat said Tuesday.... - AP, 2-2-10
  • Obama passes on Olympics: There will be gold, and greatness, upsets and records. But there will be no Barack Obama at Vancouver's Olympics. The world's most powerful leader, struggling to advance his domestic agenda, is trimming his foreign schedule. The White House announced yesterday that Vice-President Joseph Biden, not Mr. Obama, will lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics.... - Globe and Mail, 2-2-10
  • Obama's budget proposal draws rapid fire from legislators: President Obama's proposed $3.8 trillion budget ran into immediate trouble in Congress on Monday among lawmakers who said it tries to do too much while cutting the deficit too little. The quick response came as Obama sought to juggle his twin goals of creating jobs, which entails tax cuts and new spending, and cutting the deficit, which involves the opposite.... - USA Today, 2-1-10
  • News Analysis Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power: In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.... - NYT, 2-1-10
  • Obama answers questions submitted on YouTube: President Obama continued efforts to open himself to direct scrutiny from his critics on Monday, sitting for a half-hour of questions submitted to YouTube during his State of the Union address last week. The online news conference of sorts follows the president's 90-minute Q&A with Republican House members at their retreat last week, which was broadcast live on cable outlets. Both were examples of the White House attempting to demonstrate Obama's willingness to listen to voices outside his party after last month's Democratic loss in the Massachusetts Senate race.... - WaPo, 2-1-10
  • Obama is in his element in YouTube Q&A: But President Barack Obama, seeking novel ways to connect with Americans as their options for consuming news multiplies practically by the week, invited YouTube to the White House on Monday for a wide-ranging, if not particularly challenging, Q&A session....
    While perhaps not riveting political theater, the event offered a glimpse of how YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are transforming politics, allowing elected officials to bypass the traditional media and communicate directly with people over the Web. It was also a chance, one analyst said, for Obama to reconnect with some of his campaign supporters whose interest in politics waned after he took office.... - San Diego Mercury News, 2-1-10
  • States Restart Health-Care Push: Tight Budgets May Limit Legislative Efforts to Lift Coverage as National Plan Stumbles... - WSJ, 2-1-10
  • Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in 'No Child' Law: The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.... - NYT, 1-31-10
  • $100 Billion Increase in Deficit Is Forecast: The additional tax cuts and public works spending that President Obama has proposed to spur job creation would add $100 billion to this year’s deficit, bringing it to nearly $1.6 trillion, according to an administration official. A deficit of that size for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 would be about $150 billion greater than last year's deficit, which was the highest since World War II.... - NYT, 1-31-10
  • Political Memo G.O.P. Hits Its Stride, but Faces Rifts Over Ideology: Republican leaders burst into applause here the other day as their luncheon speaker, Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii, shared the latest analysis by a Washington Congressional handicapper: The way things are heading, she read,"you can count on the Democratic majority in the House being toast this fall." But as the Republican National Committee ended its winter meeting here on Saturday, party leaders, if jubilant over a string of election victories and declining support for President Obama, were also questioning whether they could take full advantage of the opening Democrats had handed them.... - NYT, 1-30-10
  • What Obama's speech means for policymakers: The president pitches a long list of initiatives in the State of the Union. The economy and job creation top his priorities.... - LAT, 1-30-10
  • Democrats' scramble to beat new deadline: Scott Brown's arrival: Senate Democrats raised the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion and passed a pay-as-you-go measure Thursday. Both needed 60 votes. But a bid to cap federal spending exposed different fault lines.... - CS Monitor, 1-28-10
  • Officials voice opposition to 9/11 trials in NYC: Opposition to the government's plans to hold the Sept. 11 terrorist trial in New York City intensified Thursday, one day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed he had changed his mind and now hoped the trial would be held elsewhere.... - WaPo, 1-28-10
  • Obama to visit House Republican retreat in Baltimore: Despite the effort at bipartisanship, the president faces an emboldened party that may be unwilling to budge, experts say.... - LAT, 1-28-10
  • Obama to Propose $33B Tax Credit for New Jobs: The plan, which the president is scheduled to announce in a stop at a Baltimore business, would offer a $5,000 tax credit for each new worker hired this year, up to $500,000 per business.... - Fox News, 1-28-10

ELECTIONS 2010, 2012....

  • Kirk, Giannoulias win Illinois' Senate primaries for Obama's old seat: Illinois voters on Tuesday set up a November battle for the Senate seat previously held by President Obama, nominating Rep. Mark Kirk (R) and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) in the nation's first primary election of 2010.... - WaPo, 2-2-10
  • Palin Endorses Paul — The Kentucky One: Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, has waded into another Republican primary, this time endorsing Rand Paul's Kentucky Senate campaign. In a statement released Monday, Ms. Palin said she was"proud to support great grassroots candidates like Dr. Paul," an ophthalmologist and son of Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican and 2008 presidential candidate.... - NYT, 2-1-10
  • Colbert Faces off With Ford Jr. Over NY Residency: Colbert grills potential US Senate candidate Ford Jr. about NY, changing positions on issues... - ABC News, 2-1-10
  • Bullying Complaint in California Primary: Steve Poizner, a candidate in the Republican primary, filed a complaint with federal and state authorities accusing his rival in the primary, Meg Whitman, of criminally trying to bully him out of the race. Mr. Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner, said in the complaint that Mike Murphy, an official with the Whitman campaign, used"strong-arm tactics" in an e-mail message that urged Mr. Poizner to leave the race and instead run for the Senate in 2012.... - NYT, 2-1-10
  • Republicans hope for another Senate victory, this time in Obama's Illinois: Not a good week for the Democrats here trying to hang on to President Obama's old Senate seat. The party's leading contender -- state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias -- has spent these last precious days before Tuesday's primary scrambling to explain why regulators have targeted his struggling family bank for greater oversight. Giannoulias, once a senior lending officer at Broadway Bank, is being pressed relentlessly by his Democratic rivals and the media about his role in the bank's woes. Republicans promise that it is not a topic that will go away. The Senate race in the president's home state will be among the most symbolically important and expensive races in the country this year. After Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts this month, the GOP sees a clear path to victory in this Democratic state -- and his name is Mark Kirk.... - WaPo, 1-30-10
  • Congressional Memo G.O.P. Envisions Northeast Comeback: The Northeastern Republican was nearly driven to extinction by political climate change, but the species appears poised to make a comeback. Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts is seen by some as evidence that independent voters are swinging to Republicans. The successful run of Scott Brown in the Senate race in Massachusetts, coupled with the front-runner status of Representative Michael N. Castle in Delaware in his bid for the Senate and other strong candidacies, could bode well for Republicans in a region that has been shedding them because of a sense that the party had grown too conservative and focused on the South.... - NYT, 1-30-10

POLITICAL QUOTES

  • Interview of the President by YouTube Library WITH STATE OF THE UNION Q&A: MR. GROVE: Hello, everyone. We're here at the White House today for a very unique event -- an exclusive interview with President Obama in which the questions come from American people who have submitted them and chosen them online. My name is Steve Grove and I'm the news and politics at YouTube.
    Mr. President, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions today.
    THE PRESIDENT: It's my pleasure. Thank you, Steve. Thanks for having me and thanks to YouTube for doing this. We had a chance to do this before I was elected and had a great time, so I'm glad we can do it again.
    MR. GROVE: Great. Well, let's tell people a little bit about how this works. Five days ago as you were delivering your State of the Union address, we opened up our moderator platform on YouTube, where thousands of people have been submitting and voting on both video and text questions. Some of them, as you'll see, were hard-hitting; others were emotional; some were even funny -- but all of the questions you'll see here today were voted into the top tier of the thousands of questions we received. And none of them have been chosen by the White House or seen by the President. So this should be a lot of fun.... - WH, 2-1-10
  • Budgeting for a New Era of Responsibility Remarks by the President on the Budget Grand Foyer: THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. This morning, I sent a budget to Congress for the coming year. It's a budget that reflects the serious challenges facing the country. We're at war. Our economy has lost 7 million jobs over the last two years. And our government is deeply in debt after what can only be described as a decade of profligacy.
    One year later, because of the steps we've taken, we're in a very different place. But we can't simply move beyond this crisis; we have to address the irresponsibility that led to it. And that includes the failure to rein in spending, as well a reliance on borrowing –- from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street –- to fuel our growth. That's what we have to change. We have to do what families across America are doing: Save where we can so that we can afford what we need.... - WH, 2-1-10
  • Weekly Address: President Obama Pledges to Rein in Budget Deficits Remarks of President Barack Obama As Prepared for Delivery Weekly Address January 30, 2010: One year later, according to numbers released this past week, this trend has reversed itself. For the past six months, our economy has been growing again. And last quarter, it grew more quickly than at any time in the past six years.
    This is a sign of progress. And it's an affirmation of the difficult decisions we made last year to pull our financial system back from the brink and get our economy moving again.
    But when so many people are still struggling – when one in ten Americans still can't find work, and millions more are working harder and longer for less – our mission isn't just to grow the economy. It’s to grow jobs for folks who want them, and ensure wages are rising for those who have them. It’s not just about improvements we see in quarterly statistics, but ones people feel in their daily lives – a bigger paycheck; more security; the ability to give your kids a decent shot in life and still have enough to retire one day yourself. That’s why job creation will be our number one focus in 2010. We'll put more Americans back to work rebuilding our infrastructure all across the country. And since the true engines of job creation are America’s businesses, I've proposed tax credits to help them hire new workers, raise wages, and invest in new plants and equipment. I also want to eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment, and help small businesses get the loans they need to open their doors and expand their operations.
    But as we work to create jobs, it is critical that we rein in the budget deficits we've been accumulating for far too long – deficits that won’t just burden our children and grandchildren, but could damage our markets, drive up our interest rates, and jeopardize our recovery right now.... - WH, 1-30-10

HISTORIANS & ANALYSTS' COMMENTS

  • LEONARD GARMENT, RONALD NESSEN, JAMES FALLOWS, RICHARD V. ALLEN, DANIEL McGROARTY, DEE DEE MYERS and KAREN HUGHES: One Year Down, a Presidency Yet to Go: With the State of the Union address, President Obama marked the symbolic end to his first year in office. From the outside, it seemed like a pretty rough roller-coaster ride. But did other administrations have it any easier? Veterans of the previous seven administrations reflect on their initial 12 months in office — and provide some perspective for the current team in the White House.... - NYT, 1-30-10
  • Obama's Presidency Draws Comparisons to Jimmy Carter The latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine revives comparisons of Barack Obama's presidency to Jimmy Carter's: "His rhetoric is more like Jimmy Carter's than any other Democratic president in recent memory," said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University historian."He has talked about rejecting the old politics, attacking special interests and lobbyists, wearing his Christian ideals on his sleeve. All of that is very much Carteresque in many ways."
    Historian Walter Russell Mead argues both men came to power after exceptionally turbulent times. The Vietnam-Watergate era for Carter. The post-9/11"war on terror" period for Obama. And both sought to reduce tensions between the U.S. and its adversaries. But that goal, Mead said, conflicts with another held by both presidents."Both Obama and Carter were in some ways visionary idealists," he said."And they're worried about issues like genocide, like poverty, tyranny around the world. And so it becomes very hard: How do you balance a human rights agenda with a kind of live-and-let live agenda?"You reach out to Iran and you ask Russia for help, that means that now Putin and Ahmadinejad have the power to either make you look good or look bad. So when you set out to try to reduce tensions with adversaries, you can sometime give hostages to fortune." - Fox News,
  • Chester Pach: Obama isn't alone among presidents with first-year frustrations: "People are starting to blame him for things not getting better," Chester Pach, a presidential historian and a professor at Ohio University."My guess is that until the economy improves substantially, his ratings are going to stay somewhere between 45 and 55 percent," or just south of so-so, historically speaking.... - Kansas City Star, 1-30-10
  • Stephen Hess: Obama isn't alone among presidents with first-year frustrations: Historians say the economy isn't all that drives these ratings."A lot has to do with the type of leader you are," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institute. Contrary to Reagan's rosy persona in the face of recession,"Obama, he's kind of a cool cat," which may not seem so cool to people losing jobs, Hess said."In the long term, we might all be thankful for having an intellectual, farsighted president," Hess said."But in the short term, people trying to feed their families aren’t so generous." - Kansas City Star, 1-30-10


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