–Obama and Romney Exchange Withering Attacks On Budget Issues
–Obama Hammers Romney For ‘Sketchy’ Program On Tax Cuts, Deficits
–Romney Scorches Obama For String of $1 Trillion Annual Budget Deficits

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Fiscal policy returned to center stage in this
week’s presidential debate, with President Obama ridiculing Republican
challenger Mitt Romney for a “sketchy” fiscal policy that
calls for deep additional tax cuts with no plausible plan for paying for
them.

Romney returned fiscal fire by hammering Obama for presiding over a
string of trillion-dollar annual deficits, thus falling fall short of
his promise in 2008 to cut budget deficits in half during his first
term.

During the Tuesday night debate in New York, Obama argued that
Romney’s call for 20% across-the-board tax cuts would cost $5 trillion
over a decade. He added that Romney is also seeking $2 trillion in
additional defense spending over a decade.

“That’s $7 trillion. He also wants to continue the Bush tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans. That another trillion dollars. That’s 8
trillion,” Obama said.

“That’s before we even get to the deficit we already have,” Obama
said, adding “nobody who’s looked at it that’s serious actually believes
it adds up.”

Romney ridiculed Obama’s record of economic leadership, saying
there is no plausible reason to believe it would improve in a second
term.

“I can tell you that if you elect President Obama, you know what
you’re going to get. You’re going to get a repeat of the last four
years. We just can’t afford four more years like the last four years,”
he said.

“We’ve gone from $10 trillion of national debt to $16 trillion of
national debt. If the president were re-elected, we’d go to almost $20
trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece,” he added.

Romney insisted that his experience in the business world would
allow him to push budget reforms. “I know what it takes to balance
budgets. I’ve done it my entire life,” he said.

In another fiscal matter, The Committee for a Responsible Federal
Budget said comprehensive tax reform which lowers tax rates and broadens
the tax base can also reduce the budget deficit.

“Combining rate reductions with substantial cuts to tax preferences
has the potential to not only help address our growing debt, but also to
reduce distortions and promote robust economic growth,” it said.

It added: “In any plan, the main priority of tax reform should be
to help address our growing debt.”

The Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget report also said
those working on tax reform should be aware of the “important and
difficult trade-offs involved between tax expenditure reduction, rate
reduction and deficit reduction. Identifying enough revenue to reduce
both deficits and rates will require bold thinking and tough choices.”

Finally, a Congressional Research Service report said the federal
spending on 83 programs designed for low income people or limited income
people cost $746 billion in the 2011 fiscal year.

These programs include Medicaid, the Low Income Energy Assistance
Program, Pell Grants and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.

The report was requested by Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking
Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who said in a statement that
these 83 programs should be viewed as “welfare programs” and that when
$283 billion in state funds for these programs is also calculated the
overall cost of the programs is more than $1 trillion.

“These astounding figures demonstrate that the United States spends
more on federal welfare than any other program in the federal budget,”
Sessions said in a statement.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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