 Today President Obama released his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Just like every budget he has offered, this proposal spends too much, taxes too much, uses budget and accounting gimmicks, and fails to address the nation’s biggest challenges. Last year, the President’s budget was so unserious that the Senate rejected it 97-0; not even a single member of his own party supported the plan. This year he hasn’t done much better.
Click here to read AFP’s full breakdown of the President’s budget. The budget calls for $1.9 trillion in higher taxes while the economy struggles to regain its footing. Raising taxes only gives politicians more money to spend, undermining efforts to control federal spending. Even with all these new taxes, the President foresees a $1.3 trillion deficit for this year, the forth straight year with a trillion-dollar deficit. The President claims over $4 trillion in deficit reduction in his budget based on either budget tricks or policies that he had nothing to do with. A few of the gimmicks include: - $1.2 trillion in spending reductions from the 2011 debt ceiling debate. However, it was conservatives and House Republicans that pushed and pushed for spending reductions during this debate; the President wanted a debt ceiling increase with no cuts at all.
- $429 billion in spending on the Medicare doctors fix is buried in the baseline, covering up this additional spending without paying for it with other cuts.
Click here to read AFP's full breakdown of the President's budget. Want to receive more regular in-depth policy updates from AFP? Click here to become one of our most engaged activists. | 
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