President Obama’s State of the Union Address Minimizes Debt Crisis

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama implied that the “fiscal cliff” legislation constituted significant progress on solving the nation’s growing debt.  But on the same day as the address, the head of the Congressional Budget Office stated at a Senate hearing: “It’s very difficult… if you look at our projections, to see how one could put the budget ultimately on a sustainable path without making significant changes in either of those large benefit programs or in taxes paid by a broad cross-section of Americans.”  In other words, the President’s focus on taxing “the rich” ignores the fact that entitlement programs like Medicare, and an overly narrow focus on taxing only wealthy Americans, are driving the projected growth in the nation’s debt.