Let's Get Presidential: Budget for Fiscal Year 2011 Announced

According to CNN, the President's budget proposal for 2011 that will be unveiled in detail today includes $300 billion more in spending than last year's budget proposal. FY 2011 is listed as 3.8 trillion dollars, up from 3.5 trillion dollars that passed last year.

In Barack Obama's first official State of the Union Address last week, Obama promised to put a freeze on discretionary spending in hopes of saving billions over the next three years. Whether this proposal will have a ripple effect or not remains to be seen.

The Washington Post lists Obama's spending plan as adding to a record Federal deficit, but he is also cutting 120 programs such as the initiative started by his predecessor to return to the moon. Included in the budget is more funding for education and research, two of the backbones of his campaign when you got past two wars and the economy as the top issues of 2008.

More Spending

What most economists agree is that to save a faltering economy, the government absolutely must spend more money otherwise we have a second Great Depression when the government did nothing. While his political opponents can yell all they want to about higher spending, the economy is still fragile and President Obama has promised more jobs and bigger recovery is on the way. Some of this recovery can't come soon enough.

Last Thursday, eight billion dollars in grants were handed out to fund high-speed rail systems in heavily populated states. This comes several months after the stimulus bill passed Congress. There are some jobs right there embedded in those projects for construction workers and manufacturers, not to mention the rail systems will provide another source of income for the states and municipalities that run them.

What's Next?

We still have yet to see grants going to fund green initiatives and smarter electric grids. I almost started when Obama's State of the Union included increasing offshore oil drilling and increased funding for nuclear reactors as a lower-emission source of power. Will his current budget support those statements? Will the budget initiatives be large enough to make an impact on the way Americans perceive their energy needs?Health care also remains a huge issue on the President's desk. When Obama releases his budget proposal at 10:45 Eastern, the pundits and lobbyists will pour over it and a new debate begins as to how future budgets will be reined in while our government expands. Surely networks like CNN, Fox News, and NPR will be digging around in the huge budget and their own experts will give their opinions. Whatever happens, Obama's second year will surely bring us more into the mind of a President dealing with many issues.