Obama, in announcing his budget with a projected deficit of $1.75 trillion, champions responsibility:
In a presidential message preceding a summary of the budget, Obama laid
out elements of the current economic crisis that he said warrant
massive government spending this year and next. In addition to the loss
of more than 3.5 million jobs in the past 13 months, he said, another
8.8 million Americans are underemployed, manufacturing employment has
hit a 60-year low, capital markets are "virtually frozen," and
"trillions of dollars of wealth have been wiped out" in the stock
markets.
"This crisis is neither the result of a normal turn of the business
cycle nor an accident of history," Obama said. "We arrived at this
point as a result of an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed
both private and public institutions from some of our largest
companies' executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C. .
. . This irresponsibility precipitated the interlocking housing and
financial crises that triggered this recession."
Saying that government has repeatedly failed to confront systemic
problems as policymakers have chosen "temporary fixes," Obama declared:
"The time has come to usher in . . . a new era of responsibility. . . .
This budget is a first step in that journey."
