Another Day, Another Trillion

In bold white script, the words "A New Era of Responsibility" are splashed across the cover of the President's new budget proposal. Unfortunately, the responsibilities outlined throughout its 142 pages are ours--all $3.6 trillion of them. In five weeks on the job, President Obama is on his way to racking up more national debt than President Bush did in five years (2001-2006). Under this spending plan, America would be saddled with a $1.8 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2009, the highest in U.S. history. This administration seems to operate under the slogan: Why quit while you're behind? Big government is back--along with big taxes, big promises, and what will certainly be big disappointments when generation after generation of taxpayers get the bill.

Among the budget highlights are some broad social policy shifts, including: a "down payment" on government-controlled health care ($634 billion), "greener" government through pricy climate research and buildings ($12.3 billion), another $5 million to Medicaid "family planning" efforts, a second, more costly bank bailout ($750 billion), and projected revenue from a "cap and trade" clamp on carbon emissions.

Today's edition of the D.C. Examiner itemizes the cost to American taxpayers in an invoice from the President, which totals $7,371,000,000,000.00. How does Obama expect to pay for everything? Charles Hurt of the New York Post writes, "Obama's budget schemes to drain staggering amounts of money from people who worked for it and steer it to people who didn't." According to some estimates, Americans can expect $1.5 trillion in tax increases by 2019. Obviously, one of the immediate casualties of the Obama era will be President Bush's tax cuts, which have provided real relief for American families. Although FRC lobbied to make the cuts permanent, they are almost certain to expire next year. The wealthy (those making $250,000 a year or more) are scheduled to take a punishing blow for their success with hikes in capital gains taxes, income taxes, employer taxes, and the resurrection of the estate tax.

But perhaps the most troubling element of the President's proposal is a deliberate--and debilitating--attack on charitable giving. To the dismay of people across the political spectrum, the White House has asked for a 20% reduction in the amount that upper-income people can deduct from their taxes for making charitable donations. For organizations already feeling the crunch of the recession, this could be a killing blow.

Under the current plan, no one would be immune. The new code would affect everything from think tanks to food banks. As the President is well aware, the pain would be particularly acute for the community of religious conservatives, who are more generous than political liberals in every measurable way. The move would hurt traditional-values charities most, since the government is already funding the far Left's agenda on abortion, environmentalism, welfare, the arts, and "family planning" with billions of tax dollars every year.

In effect, Obama would be squeezing out any programs that are not government approved. He claims the move would bring in roughly $32 billion a year--but at a much larger cost to philanthropy as a whole. If the provision passes, the White House would be well on its way to replacing the work of churches, nonprofits, and social service agencies with more government programs, which studies have proven to be a poor and ineffective substitute. Americans should be outraged. If there's one place that doesn't need our charity, it's Washington. (frcpub@frc.org)