"All told, we are showing $2.7 trillion in costs, in this budget, that were excluded from previous budgets," Orszag told reporters. "And I think that's a mark of the honesty and responsibility contained in this document."The president's first budget also contains a $634 billion down payment on a universal health care program.
While in office President Bush routinely left off items such as war costs and financial bailouts from his budget proposals, instead insisting such items were not costs but investments. The Obama administration has ruled out such schemes and wants to turn honesty into accountability.
"In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go,"I whole heartily agree with this. There's no reason to let Bush and the Republicans off the hook for this.
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He said previous budgets have "not told the whole truth" about spending and that "large sums have been left off the books," including war costs that have been funded by separate emergency supplemental appropriations.
"And that kind of dishonest accounting is not how you run your family budgets at home; it's not how your government should run its budgets either," Obama said.
Obama's FY 2010 Budget Overview
