Obama Budget: President Sends Record $4.1 Trillion Spending Plan To Congress

Feb 20, 2016, 19:44

The administration wove the initiatives together in its $4 trillion 2016 budget proposal as the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), which it said would enable "long-term improvements in our approach to cybersecurity across the federal government, the private sector, and our personal lives".

The budget proposal documents also include a smaller proposed expenditure over the next three years on "Pilot models for providing multiple-employer benefits".

Although construction funding overall would see a net gain if this budget is approved by Congress, if the "clean transportation" plan doesn't end up getting approved - as many Republican lawmakers have promised - the total construction allocation would be almost unchanged from the previous year.

Adding insult to White House injury, spending announcements that would have made waves in the first year of Obama's administration are likely to quickly dissolve into saturation coverage of the New Hampshire presidential primary, which also takes place on Tuesday.

"The president once promised not to leave our fiscal problems for future generations to solve, but in this budget, that is exactly what he does", said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

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Still, the budget provides Obama with an opportunity to fashion national and Democratic party priorities.

US President Barack Obama presented his 2017 budget proposal, including an annual aid package for Colombia's pending peace process, to the Republican-dominated US Congress on Tuesday.

"No matter how good we get, we will never stop 100 percent of intrusions" Michael Daniel, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator, told reporters in the briefing before the release of the budget plan.

Another idea, estimated to save $5.8 billion over 10 years, would allow the federal government to join forces with states to negotiate Medicaid rebates from drug companies.

The project also comes with a new federal chief information officer appointed and a focus on attracting cyber-professionals to work for the government, including scholarships and forgiving students loans. The president has called for paying for the budget with an increase in taxes on the wealthiest individuals in the country, as well as big banks.

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When Obama earlier this year suggested he could not vote or campaign for anyone who does not support gun control, Sanders was quick to define his record on the issue.

To offset any increase in spending, the White House said its tax, immigration and healthcare reforms would reap United States dollars 2.9 trillion in savings over the next 10 years.

The president also proposed a $3.1 billion effort to modernize the often antiquated federal technical infrastructure and networks, replacing legacy systems that have frequently serve as critical gaps in cybersecurity.

In a sign of how bad relations are between the president and Congress, Rep. Price and his Senate counterpart Mike Enzi did not invite the administration's budget director to testify before their committees.

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