Obama Unveils $3.8T Budget Proposal

Plan includes record deficit, money for job program
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2010 10:13 AM CST
Obama Unveils $3.8T Budget Proposal
Copies of President Barack Obama's budget are delivered to the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Feb. 1, 2010.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Barack Obama sent Congress a budget proposal today that would push the deficit to $1.56 trillion—its highest level in history. The budget would raise taxes on the wealthy and freeze spending on a host of government programs, but calls for spending $100 billion on job creation, including tax breaks to encourage businesses to hire and government spending on infrastructure projects.

Obama decried “what can only be described as a decade of profligacy,” and called on lawmakers to follow his lead and reduce “waste in programs I care about.” The proposal would push 2010 spending to $3.72 trillion, and 2011 spending to $3.83 trillion. Republicans decried its tax cuts and deficit expansion, but the administration argues that it inherited a trillion-dollar deficit, and has been forced to keep spending to stimulate the economy. (More Barack Obama stories.)

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