When I hear the term “spending freeze” I think no more additional spending, but apparently there is a different definition used by Obama.  To him it means no additional funding to certain projects, but other programs may continue to spend.

I just don’t see how increasing spending by over $3 trillion will help cut the national debt. To me spending more money means you go deeper in debt. Does the government have a different set of mathematical rules?

The Obama Budget: Higher Taxes, Higher Spending and More Debt

President Barack Obama will submit a $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2011 to Congress today. One might hope that given last year’s $1.4 trillion budget deficit was an all-time high and the President promised a spending “freeze” in last week’s State of the Union, this budget might signal a change in direction from the White House. No such luck. President Obama’s new budget is full of billions of dollars in new spending for failed government programs, higher taxes on American families and businesses, and deficit spending for as far as the eye can see.

At the very least, the budget document President Obama is submitting today exposes his spending “freeze” promise for the fraud that it is. As outlined last week, the administration would halt spending increases for only a $447 billion sliver of our total budget, with a total of $15 billion to be saved. That is less than half a percent off of last year’s spending. Worse, this isn’t even an across-the-board spending freeze; it is an aggregate one. So “spending cuts” in parts of the budget are immediately channeled to others. For example, even though the federal government does not need any money for the Census next year, President Obama counts the $5 billion spent this year as a “spending cut” that can be immediately spent on other government programs, such as a16% increase in Department of Education funding, a 6.8% increase in Department of Energy funding, and increases for ineffective Health and Human Services programs like Head Start and sex education.

Given the best case scenario, the most the White House hopes to save from this supposed spending “freeze” is$15 billion. And that is easily dwarfed by just the $100 billion President Obama wants for his Economic Stimulus II plan. Then there are the tax hikes, including higher taxes on families earning more than $250,000 and a brand new tax on financial institutions to pay for the failed automobile union bailout.

And what is the end result of all of President Obama’s new taxes and spending? A record national debt. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the United States will post a $1.556 trillion deficit in fiscal 2010, which the Obama administration claims will be reduced to $1.267 trillion in fiscal 2011, thanks to their budget. Given this administration’s budget forecasting record, however, expect that final deficit number to go up. The Obama administration now forecasts $5.08 trillion in debt over the next five years; that is 35% more debt than they forecast just 12 months ago.

A common sense budget would move our country in a much different direction. For starters, the remaining TARP and stimulus funds should both be rescinded. Next, instead of the President’s fungible “aggregate” spending freeze, tough hard spending caps should be enacted. Finally, Congress should disclose the massive unfunded obligations of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; put those programs on long-term budgets; and enact the necessary entitlement and programmatic reforms that can keep government within those limits. –more

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The US goes to war in Iraq and many criticized the US saying we only went in there to get the oil.  Now it looks like Russia, China, and even France are benefiting from “our” oil.  Is North Korea next?

Did the US withhold bidding to say, “See we didn’t do it for the oil!”  We spent billions of dollars and lost thousands of troops in an effort to free Iraq.  They used that freedom to sell oil contracts to countries that didn’t want to help them gain that freedom.

Russia The Real Winner In Iraq: Russian Oil Giant Gets Iraq Contract

Well, isn’t that nice. Americans free Iraq of the genocidal dictator known as Saddam Hussein, and Russia reaps the rewards.

A Russian oil company won the bid for for drilling rights in one of Iraq’s premier oil finds. Lukoil along with Norway’s Statoil won the rights to the 12.88 billion barrel West Qurna Phase 2 field in the Basra region. They beat out bids from France, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. The United States was too busy worrying about green energy and hiring federal inmates to produce it to even bid.   –more

China’s CNPC wins Iraq’s Halfaya oil deal

Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani has announced a consortium led by China’s CNPC has won a deal in the country’s second bidding round to develop the giant Halfaya oilfield, Reuters has reported. CNPC has a 50% stake in the consortium, while Total of France and Malaysia’s Petronas hold 25% each. The Halfaya oilfield has estimated reserves of 4.1 billion barrels of oil.   –more

Related Iraqi Oil articles

• Lukoil Group Wins Iraq Oil Auction (online.wsj.com)
• Iraq Oil Field Goes to Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas (nytimes.com)
• Iraq hails 2nd oil auction (seattletimes.nwsource.com)