The Budget Is Out: Get A Load of This

President Obama's budget is out. It's a head shaker.

The president states in an opening message of the 134-page budget document:

This crisis is neither the result of a normal turn of the business cycle nor an accident of history. We arrived at this point as a result of an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies' executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C.

Let's make one thing clear right from the start, the current crisis is the direct result of a turn in the business cycle created by the money manipulations of Fed chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. I sniffed out from President Obama's speech to Congress that he was going to use the crisis as cover for other pet projects when I wrote:

These are the most clever and dangerous words I have ever heard a president speak. Notice he starts off by talking about the economy, housing and the stock market, but then he slips into talks about energy, healthcare and education.

Lew Rockwell is correct when he says government loves economic downturns.

President Obama is attempting to use the current crisis to change America as we know it. According to WSJ, the budget calls for:

...large increases in education funding, including indexing Pell Grants for higher education to inflation and converting the popular scholarship to an automatic "entitlement" program. High-speed rail would gain a $1 billion-a-year grant program, part of a larger effort to boost infrastructure spending even beyond the funds in his $787 billion stimulus plan.

...Obama will request an additional $75.5 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of 2009 and another $130 billion for 2010, as he withdraws most combat troops from Iraq over 19 months but sends many of them to Afghanistan.

...In one of the budget's most ambitious proposals, the president plans to cap the emissions of greenhouse gases..He acknowledged his $630 billion fund for a national health insurance program will not be enough to ensure access to health care for all Americans, but he said it will be a star.

...To finance his proposals, the president has clearly chosen winners and losers -- with the affluent heading the list of losers. In populist tones that reflect an anger he notably avoided on the campaign trail, Mr. Obama wrote, "Prudent investments in education, clean energy, health care, and infrastructure were sacrificed for huge tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected. In the face of these trade-offs, Washington has ignored the squeeze on middle-class families that is making it harder for them to get ahead… There's nothing wrong with making money, but there is something wrong when we allow the playing field to be tilted so far in the favor of so few."

Oil and gas companies would be hit particularly hard, with the repeal of multiple tax credits and deductions.

The federal government would take over most student lending...

"There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house, and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation," Mr. Obama said as he unveiled his plan. "Today we have to focus on foundations."

And in a bit of what sounds like a hint of payback (although Obama, himself, doesn't come form a slave background), I am willing to give him this one, if he ditches the rest of his socialist plan:

...cotton storage would no longer be financed by the federal government.