OMB ( Office of Management and Budget's )

Pentagon Requesting $671 Billion for Core Defense Spending, Wars, OMB Says

The Pentagon is requesting $671 billion for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, $37 billion less than this year’s request, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

The new request includes $553 billion in core Department of Defense spending, including weapons procurement, and $117.8 billion in military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the federal budget documents released today. ( Read OMB more... )

'A Lot of Pain': OMB Director on the President's Budget

With President Obama's new budget predicting that this year’s deficit will hit a record $1.6 trillion, OMB Director Jack Lew is admitting that we may never see the budget surpluses he left behind when last serving as budget director under Bill Clinton.

“I wish I could stand here and say that we were on the edge of a surplus. When I left my last day in office I went to Congress and testified and projected $5.6 trillion surplus for the next ten years,” Lew told me. “I came back ten years later to look at projections of over $10 trillion in debt over the next ten years. It’s enough to break your heart. It’s going to take us a lot of hard work just to get to the point where we are not adding to the debt.” ( Read OMB more... )

OMB Director Lew on the New Budget

President Obama will release his budget blueprint for fiscal 2012 next week. If an op-ed penned by his budget director, Jacob Lew, in Sunday’s New York Times is any indication, the administration intends to continue fiddling while the government’s finances burn.

The title of the piece, “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us,” is a real head-scratcher. Lew’s “easy cuts” are an apparent reference to the $20 billion in savings the president proposed in his previous budgets. Considering that the president proposed total spending of $3.8 trillion last year, $20 billion in gross cuts was an insignificant gesture to say the least. In reality, the Bush administration passed the spending baton to the Obama administration two years ago and it promptly sprinted off like Usain Bolt. ( Read OMB more... )

White House White Board: OMB Director on the President's Budget

In this White House White Board, Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, explains how the President's Budget will help then government live within its means, while still investing in America's future. ( Read OMB more... )

Obama's Budget Proposal Includes $1.6 Trillion in New Taxes

President Obama released his $3.7 trillion 2012 fiscal budget today that he's spinning as a deficit reducer. Surprisingly not hidden in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) report are a series of tax increases that will continue to hurt businesses and inject uncertainty into the economy.

Obama's budget claims to reduce the deficit by over $1 trillion within the next decade, but the budget doesn't confront the nation's biggest costs: entitlement programs. ( Read OMB more... )

Courtesy : Bloomberg , ABC News , Cato-at-Liberty , Habledash & R i g h t a r d i a