On Budget Issues, President Obama's Honesty is In Question

Impact

A recent CNN/New York Times poll showed that both the economy/jobs and the deficit are Americans' highest priorities across the country. These are virtually the same national priorities we held when President Barack Obama was elected; the country knew we were headed for a recession and knew the country was on the wrong track, and we wanted change.

America needs straight talk from our elected officials about budget costs and the debt. The New Yorker reported that Obama has been far from honest with the public over the budget and debt. If true, then Obama has basically been telling us a fairy tale on the economy. It is no wonder that Obama takes a hard line against any leak to the press as a national security threat with this potential “Obamagate” hiding beneath the public's attention.

Taxpayers are the people who will actually have to pay the debt. Obama is spending far faster than his predecessor. Obama inherited a huge debt from the previous administration. To put the debt in perspective, our current U.S. public debt is $15.2 trillion. According the latest available data from the IRS, the percentage of total tax collect from individual filers was 43.9%, while that of corporation income tax returns was less than 10%. This does not include Medicare, Social Security, or other business excise taxes.

Refundable and non paying tax returns are increasing due to new Obama regulations or ones he has continued during his administration. As it is impossible to accurately tabulate each taxpayer’s amount currently owed until after the fact, a best estimate is that each tax payer owes approximately $75,000 to $150,000 per paying tax return. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle for the average taxpayer who makes about $40,000 a year. This represents a significant burden that Washington is hiding from the people. This is about equal or greater to the average rent or mortgage payment the average taxpayer is currently making based on a 30-year amortization. If it is not obvious to the reader, we are approaching critical inability to tax and repay, which is the reason the credit agencies issued a downgrade of our debt. Imagine paying an additional tax over what is currently paid to the government in the amount of your current rent payment or mortgage payment and the truth hits home.

Obama’s previous budget proposals and results do not give us any confidence that anything from the White House will be on target. With the honesty of the President on budget matters now seriously in question, who can be trusted to be in the leadership role of the country to not tell us what we want to hear, but tell us the truth about our current situation and realistic plans to deal with it? Who can we believe?

Of the candidates that we have to choose from, who do you think is the most honest on budgeting and getting our country back on fiscal track and stability for the future?

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons