NTU Foundation researchers were up long into the night and woke up extra early to tabulate the proposed costs in this year’s State of the Union (SOTU). Similar to NTUF’s candidate studies, we went line-by-line through the speech & identified all of the legislative actions President Obama proposed to the Nation. We then referenced those items with cost estimates from his own budget, legislation being considered in Congress right now, and third parties (like the Congressional Budget Office) to come up with a total spending agenda. Here’s a breakdown:
- Number of Spending Increases: 12
- Number of Spending Decreases: 1
- Items with Unknown Spending Effects: 16
- Total Number of Items: 29
Though this was not President Obama’s longest SOTU address, he managed to announce 29 different policies that would affect the budget. Because of the lack of information included in his speech and in documents released by the White House, NTUF was able to score 13 of those items; the other 16 could resurface with more clarity in future legislative measures, executive orders, or more regulations in the U.S. Code. How much are we talking about? Check out the totals:
- Spending increases: $40.098 billion
- Spending decreases: ($103) million
- Total 2014 SOTU Net Spending: $39.995 billion
This total is light compared to last year’s $83.41 billion SOTU cost, but remember that this is just under $40 billion in NEW spending (i.e. adding to the deficit, which is projected to be $744 billion this year, according to the Administration’s Mid-Session Review). So if the 13 items were enacted, the government would be forced to borrow more money and keep future taxpayers on the hook for today’s decisions.
The largest budget-changing proposals include (figures are annualized):
- Comprehensive Immigration Reform: $20.2 billion
- Extending Emergency Unemployment Benefits: $12.8 billion
- Providing 4 Year-Olds with Pre-Kindergarten: $3.5 billion
The only savings proposals that NTUF was able to clearly identify was a call to prevent future bailouts of the housing market, which was matched with a bill currently in Congress that would decrease spending by $103 million each year. S. 1376, the FHA Solvency Act was covered in a recent edition of The Taxpayer’s Tab and would bring in more mortgage insurance premium fees (counted as an offset to direct spending). More information on this bill can be found in a post by NTUF Policy Analyst Michael Tasselmyer (coming soon).
Wondering how each of President Obama's speeches compare? Check out NTUF's homepage.
Stay tuned for more SOTU analyses from the best team of tax and budget analysts in the country.