Obama Fails To Implement Ideas Of His Own Fiscal Commission

How big a joke is Obama’s new budget? He’s ignoring his own Fiscal Commission’s recommendations…it’s almost like the work they did last year to come up with a plan, never happened:

“The country’s biggest challenge, domestically speaking, no doubt about it, is a debt crisis. … It looks like the debt is going to continue rising under this budget,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Presidents are elected to lead, not to punt. And this president has been punting.”

Some who worked on Obama’s fiscal panel were also disappointed by his decision not to endorse any of the major elements of their deficit-reduction plan, which calls for raising the Social Security retirement age, charging wealthy seniors more for Medicare and limiting popular tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deduction.

“I would have preferred to see the administration get out front on addressing the entitlements and the tax reform that we need to reduce long-run deficits,” said Alice Rivlin, a commission member who served as budget director in the Clinton White House. “But they clearly made a tactical decision that this is not the best way to get to a positive result.”

Erskine Bowles, the Democratic chairman of the fiscal commission, said the White House budget request goes “nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.”

Hot Air has video of Ryan slamming Obama for “punting” on the budget crisis.

His plan appears to be nothing more than a continuation of the insanely irresponsible tax and spend fiscal policies that are leading the nation to ruin.

Americans For Tax Reform says there are $1.5 trillion in tax hikes over present law hidden in Obama’s budget:

Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike
Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%
Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike
Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike
New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years
New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years
New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years
Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years
Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years
Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income. This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years
A giveaway to the trial lawyers—not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years
Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.