Cloudy Days on the Budget Front

Today Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the Obama administration’s request for a 62 percent spending increase. He received a rather rocky reception. Here, he repeats the Obama administration’s claim that under the President’s budget, we would be paying down the national debt. This is an absurd claim; in every year under the President’s budget the government will run at least a $600 billion deficit, even if you accept all of the administration’s rosy assumptions. That adds to the debt, it doesn’t pay it down. Here, Senator Jeff Sessions called LaHood on his misrepresentation:

President Obama’s transportation budget includes a miraculous $435 billion in new funding, with no explanation as to where the money will come from. It just magically appears in the budget:

President Obama’s budget is a joke. Fortunately, there is no chance that it will be enacted.