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Monday, January 08, 2007

Bush budget will be Portman's baby


One Bush administration official who will soon be going toe-to-toe with the new Democratic Congress is Cincinnati's own Rob Portman, the former 2nd District congressman who is now White House budget director.

On Feb. 5, the Bush White House will deliver a $2.8 trillion federal budget plan to Congress, a document drawn up in large part by Portman, who will be called on to help sell it to his former Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill.

Counting on continued growth in revenues, the Bush budget plan promises to elminate federal budget deficits by 2012 and do it while continuing to fight a global war on terrorism and with the Bush tax cuts in place.

"I think we can make the case that the tax cuts have worked and that this is a plan that can work,'' Portman said in Cincinnati Monday, in town to pick an award from the Center for Chemical Addition Treatment.

Portman said he couldn't share details of the budget plan and said there is still "a lot of number-crunching going on,'' but he said the administration is using "pretty conservative' revenue projections.

"We're not going to offer pie-in-the-sky revenue figures,'' Portman said. "It will be a realistic budget document."

Portman said the biggest fiscal challenge the government faces is "the long-term sustainability" of entitlement programs like Social Security.

Wednesday, on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Portman will be part of a panel discussion that is part of the Concord Coalition's "Fiscal Wake-up Tour,'' a nationwide series of events aimed at focusing attention on long-term fiscal problems.

Along with representatives of the conservative Heritage Foundation and the liberal Brookings Institution, Portman will appear with John Glenn, the former Democratic senator from Ohio.


3 Comments:

at 7:14 PM, January 08, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bbutt, on October 5, 2006 Mr. Portman told that conservative bastion the Washington Times...

In an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, Mr. Portman and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Ed Lazear made a pitch for extending the personal and investment tax cuts, which they believe spurred growth in the economy and stock market.

But they conceded that the tax cuts have not prompted more people to get work and contribute to the economy, while they cut deeply into government revenue and contributed to record budget deficits that have not shown much improvement until recently.

"We do not say the tax cuts pay for themselves," said Mr. Lazear.


Also could someone please explain to me why Bush was for pork barrel earmarks when the GOP was in the majority and now suddenly he isn't?

 
at 10:22 AM, January 09, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rob,

PLEASE COME BACK TO CINCINNATI AND RUN FOR YOUR OLD SEAT AGAIN!

JEAN MUST GO!

 
at 10:37 PM, January 09, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really, really wish you hadn't described the budget as someone's baby, because the Bush budget is going to be stillborn.

Or maybe you Christian Right types will prefer ABORTED.

The Bush budget is DOA, people.

The Democrats' budget will carry the day. We will reduce the immoral travesty knows as the national (Republican) deficit. We will increase funding for education and welfare, so that the truly needy get a hand up, not a swift kick down the stairs.

We will completely and totally eliminate subsidies for companies that ship jobs overseas.

We will make sure the oil companies actually pay some taxes instead of taking middle-class tapayers' dollars.

And oh yes there will be plenty of resources dedicated to investigating Republican corruption.

Expect a massive increase in prison construction in the NEXT budget.

 
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