MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Monday featured the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to bizarrely state that Barack Obama had introduced a "balanced budget." Unfortunately for Jeffery Zients and the liberal cable network, it is hard to hide the fact that the President’s proposal actually projects a budget deficit of $1.33 trillion for the fiscal year 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When asked what he thought about the Republican Senate renaming the proposal ‘Debt on Arrival,’ Zients stated, “I think the President has put forward today a balanced budget.” For the country to have a balanced budget, its spending must match its revenue, and the country has not come close to that feat in some time now. Obama’s proposal marks the fourth straight year of budget deficits exceeding a trillion dollars. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Zients went on to explain how he reached the "balanced" label. Zients attempted to add clarity, but fell far short. He reasoned, “First of all, the President invests and makes immediate investments in job creation, starting with making sure that the payroll tax cut continues, and that we do not have a tax increase on 160 million Americans....At the same time, we have year over year of deficit reduction, leading to a stable debt to GDP ratio by 2018. So it’s balanced, in that we have immediate job creation and then we have deficit reduction. And the deficit reduction itself is done in a balanced way."
This seems to be an attempt by the White House to attach the label of ‘balanced’ to a budget that falls far from it. This comes at a time when the White House flatly rejects calls for a Balanced Budget amendment, and there seems to be no chance for an actually balanced budget in the foreseeable future.
Relevant transcript follows below:
MSNBC
1:45:00
2/13/12
ANDREA MITCHELL: And right now, Senate Republicans are reacting to the President’s budget proposal on Capitol Hill, this is Senator Barrasso.
SEN. BARRASSO: I believe this president has abandoned his role as leader of this nation by not being honest with the American people about the significance of the national debt. And that’s why, somebody asked me if this budget was ‘dead on arrival,and I said ‘no, no, it’s not dead on arrival, it's debt on arrival.’
ANDREA MITCHELL: With us now is acting Budget Director, Jeffrey Zients, thanks so much. First of all, they renamed your budget debt on arrival. What is your response to that?
JEFFREY ZIENTS: I think the President has put forward today a balanced budget. Balanced in two ways. First of all, the President invests and makes immediate investments in job creation, starting with making sure that the payroll tax cut continues, and that we do not have a tax increase on 160 million Americans. The President also has proposals to put Americans back to work, on infrastructure projects, to modernize our schools, to help rebuild our neighborhoods. At the same time, we have year over year of deficit reduction, leading to a stable debt to GDP ratio by 2018. So it’s balanced, in that we have immediate job creation and then we have deficit reduction. And the deficit reduction itself is done in a balanced way. $2.50 of spending cuts for every dollar of new revenue. So I think this is a responsible budget and we hope Congress takes it seriously and passes it's into law soon.
