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The time is now 5:13 am
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May 7, 2024, 5:13 am
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Obama: Now Congress Must Pay For What It Spends
Published:
Obama Weekly Address: Now Congress Will 'Pay For What It Spends, Just Like Everybody Else"
DARLENE SUPERVILLE
02/13/10 02:09 PM |
Obama signed a bill Friday reinstating budget rules known as "paygo" – short for "pay as you go."
In place during the 1990s, the rules helped create balanced budgets and surpluses. Obama blames eliminating them for creating much of the $1.3 trillion deficit he faced upon taking office in January 2009 and for a total debt of $8 trillion projected over the next decade.
The president has been trying to show a public alarmed by higher government spending in the midst of an economic downturn that he is taking steps to tighten Washington's purse strings.
But the bill also lifted the cap on the amount of money the U.S. can borrow by $1.9 trillion – to a total of $14.3 trillion. The ceiling was lifted from $12.4 trillion to keep the U.S. from going into default.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said the "politics of the moment" often overwhelms the desire Democrats and Republicans have to produce balanced budgets – something the federal government legally is not required to do.
"Now, Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody else," he said.
Obama did not discuss raising the debt ceiling in his message.
The president also repeated a promise to create, by executive order, a panel of Democrats and Republicans to suggest ways for closing the gap between what the government spends and what it collects in revenue. His proposal is weaker than a similar plan recently defeated by the Senate because Congress would not be required to vote on the presidential panel's recommendations.
Obama was expected to sign the executive order as early as next week.
The administration is projecting a $1.56 trillion deficit for the budget year ending Sept. 30.
Republicans mocked Obama for signing the "paygo" bill behind closed doors.
"With a simple stroke of his pen, President Obama now has the ability to continue his binge spending agenda to the tune of an additional $1.9 trillion, the largest one-time increase in our history," Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said Friday. "Taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for the Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility."
Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Comments
http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm
In March 2009, the average earnings for full-time Federal employees were $74,403 compared with $40331 in the private sector.
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.
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