Obama uninterested in balancing the budget

I know this isn't a surprise. But I wonder if the voters agree with him?

The Hill:

President Obama is unlikely to balance the budget when he releases his budget blueprint next month.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday said Obama's budget will seek to put the U.S. on a "fiscally sustainable path" that brings the deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product.

He said Obama's proposal would not attempt to hit an arbitrary target, however, and that it will only project over the next decade.

"The broader effort underway here is to try to, through the budget process, achieve a compromise that allows for both entitlement reform and tax reform, that produces the savings necessary to achieve that $4 trillion-plus target over 10 years of deficit reduction to put our economy on a fiscally sustainable path," Carney said. "And that is the president's goal: Deficit reduction large enough to put our economy on a fiscally sustainable path so that the ratio of debt-to-GDP is below 3 percent for a period of time that would allow concurrently, through investments and other policy decisions, allow the economy to grow."

They sure do like that phrase "fiscally sustainable path," don't they? Allow me to loosely translate:To hell with a balanced budget, we are going to keep spending money like there's no tomorrow until, well, there is no tomorrow.

By the way, 3% of our current GDP of about $14 trillion is more than $400 billion dollars. That's the president's deficit target - 10 years from now. And this is assuming the Fed keeps interest rates at or near zero. For every point they rise, add around $180 billion to our debt servicing.

The White House will also be assuming savings from Medicare that have yet to be negotiated, and tax "reform" that hasn't even been imagined yet.

Paul Ryan releases his budget proposal tomorrow and envisions a balanced budget in 10 years. But that goal includes the repeal of Obamacare which is a desirable thing but unrealistic given the circumstances.

We are saddled with a deficit that won't come down until fundamental changes are made in Washington. Neither side seems very willing to make those changes, which assures us trillions of dollars in new debt over the next decade.