Taxpayer's Tab: Billions On The Line in Obama's Speech

SOTU: What to Expect & What You Can Do

• Largest Increase: In 2013, his proposals equaled both his highest standard total ($83.4 billion per year) and NTUF determined an alternative net total of $100.4 billion, counted towards a measure to put off sequester cuts.
• Largest Decrease: As opposed to the previous eleven years on record, we found that President Obama’s 2012 Address could decrease net spending by almost $28 billion each year. NTUF has found that SOTU’s are not typically avenues by which Presidents propose spending reductions.

• Instituting Cap and Trade: As a way to monetize and limit carbon emissions, a cap and trade system would award carbon credits to states and businesses. The credits would limit how much CO2 that they could release into the atmosphere. If they do not expend their credits, they could sell them on a new carbon market to other entities. At last tally, NTUF determined that establishing and operating such a system would cost taxpayers $56 billion annually.
• Infrastructure Projects: Since taking office, the President has pledged to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, and utilities, principally as a job stimulus. Taking the form of different types of programs, he has repeatedly called for the creation of a national infrastructure bank and for a significant boost in federal infrastructure expenditures, ranging from $11 to $50 billion.
• Defense Cuts: On the spending-decrease side, SOTU has been a time for the President to talk about what the military needs and what it can do without. Pentagon officials have pledged billions in reductions and the President has sought to codify those cuts through Congress as a means to reduce the deficit and dedicate spending elsewhere. Similar to his infrastructure plans, the price tag varies between $16 and $49 billion in annual savings.

• Economic Growth: At a Ford assembly plant outside Detroit, Obama defended the White House’s $80 billion auto industry bailout as a policy that prevented a deeper recession. From there he traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to introduce a plan to lower mortgage premium rates by 0.5 percent, a move the White House claimed would lower payments by $900 per year for first-time home buyers.
• Community College Funding: In Knoxville, Tennessee, the President rolled out his vision for “free” community college, in which federal and state governments would cover the cost of 2 years’ worth of tuition for qualifying students. The White House claimed it could help an estimated 9 million students, but didn’t elaborate on how it plans to finance the proposal (related universal education measures, such as the President’s pre-k proposal introduced in past SOTUs, have depended on higher tobacco taxes). NTUF’s Demian Brady discussed the hefty price tag associated with the idea on our blog.
• Cybersecurity and Broadband Access: On Wednesday, the President was in Cedar Falls, Iowa (home of the nation’s third-fastest broadband speeds) to tout his support for faster broadband speeds across the country. Prior to that, he was at the Federal Trade Commission’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. to announce new regulations to fight online ID theft. Today, Vice President Biden was in Norfolk, Virginia to push for new federal grants dedicated to funding cybersecurity job training.
• Paid Family and Medical Leave: Also on Wednesday, the White House proposed a $2 billion fund “to encourage states to develop paid family and medical leave programs” and also called on Congress to enact legislation to establish paid leave regulations on businesses with at least 15 employees.

While we won’t know the full extent of the cost of these proposals until the President offers more details in his speech, taxpayers can make a guess ahead of time using our past analyses. Be sure to enter the SOTU Price Tag contest by Tuesday, January 20 at 7 PM!