–House Budget Chief: Obama Has ‘Outsourced’ Fiscal Leadership
–Rep. Ryan: ‘We Have A Debt Crisis On Our Hands’
–Rep. Ryan: Obama Has ‘Ducked Responsibility’ on Budget
–Sen. Sessions: Admin Budget Is ‘Exceedingly Disappointing’

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan Monday
said President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget is little more
than a political document which avoids making the critical fiscal
decisions that have to be made soon.

In a conference call with Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking
Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Ryan scorched the Obama
budget as a “political plan for the president’s reelection.”

“The president has ducked responsibility. He’s punted again,” Ryan
said.

Ryan said Obama’s budget fails to make any reforms of key
entitlement or other spending programs and relies heavily on tax hikes.

Ryan said Obama’s failure in the FY’13 budget is consistent with a
record of failed fiscal policies.

“He’s outsourced leadership to committees and commissions,” Ryan
said.

Ryan add that “what’s so disturbing is we have a debt crisis on the
horizon.”

Sessions called the Obama budget “exceedingly disappointing” and
said it would lead to cumulative deficits of about $11 trillion over the
coming decade.

“It is a tax and spend budget,” Sessions said.

Monday, Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget and said it
would secure about $3 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years.

The Obama budget projects a $1.33 trillion deficit for FY’12, the
current fiscal year. This is slightly above the actual FY’11 deficit of
$1.296 trillion.

For FY’13, the president’s budget would spend about $3.8 trillion
and take in about $2.9 trillion of revenues, resulting in a deficit of
about $900 billion.

Obama’s budget calls for $1.5 trillion in additional revenues, with
higher taxes proposed on some corporations, upper income earners and
hedge funds. Much of this additional revenue will come from allowing
many of the Bush era tax cuts to expire at the end of the year for those
with annual incomes of more than $250,000.

The president’s fiscal outline calls for about $350 billion in
short-term stimulus measures, with about half of this coming from a
year-long extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance
benefits.

The plan calls for about $580 billion in entitlement savings from
programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and agriculture subsidies.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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