Robert Maguire's Library tagged budget →  View Popular

An interesting point from Krugman:

Take the CBO estimate
of the cost of subsidies and Medicaid expansion in the Senate bill —
that is, ignoring all possible cost savings. It’s $179 billion in 2018.
Take the CMS projection
of total health care spending in 2018: it’s more than $4.5 trillion. So
the direct cost of expanding coverage — the initial bump in the blue
curve above — is less than 4 percent of total health care spending.
That’s the amount by which, on the current trajectory, health spending
rises every 7 months.

And it's budgeted. Any Republican who voted for the unfunded Medicare Prescription Drug Entitlement has no logical standing to oppose this bill on fiscal grounds.

The conference agreement includes $8,227,000,000 for Diplomatic and Consular Programs (D&CP), which is $2,300,000 below the House and the same as the Senate. Within the total, $6,640,786,000 is for ongoing operations, including public diplomacy activities, and $1,586,214,000 is for Worldwide Security Protection.

Human Resources Initiative (HRI) .-The conference agreement does not include a provision specifying an amount for the HRI, as proposed by the Senate. Instead, the amount for the HRI is included in the table above.

The conference agreement includes $344,190,000 and a projected 745 positions to enhance the diplomatic capacity and readiness of the Department of State.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who suggested paying for the additional troops “…through a freeze on discretionary spending — specifically, holding 2009 appropriations at 2008 levels, which he said would generate $60 billion.”

Someone needs to tell the senator that fiscal 2009 ended at midnight September 30, 2009, that is more than two months ago.

• The 2010 Pentagon budget means "every man, woman and child in the United States will spend more than $2,700 on (defense) programs and agencies next year," reports the Cato Institute. "By way of comparison, the average Japanese spends less than $330; the average German about $520; China's per capita spending is less than $100."
• "(The Pentagon budget) dwarfs the combined defense budgets of U.S. allies and potential U.S. enemies alike," reports Hearst Newspapers.
• "President (Obama) is on track to spend more on defense, in real dollars, than any other president has in one term of office since World War II," reports National Journal's Government Executive magazine.
• In 2000, the Pentagon admitted it has lost -- yes, lost -- $2.3 trillion. In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a subsequent Department of Defense study said it was only $1 trillion. To put such numbers in perspective, contemplate what those sums could finance. $1 trillion, for instance, could pay the total cost of universal healthcare for the long haul. $2.3 trillion would cover universal healthcare plus the bank bailout plus the stimulus package.