Cost Of Obama's SOTU Wish List? More Than a Dime

In his Tuesday State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama promised, “Let me repeat–nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.”

That line quickly proved to be typical political rhetoric, as he spent the rest of his speech proposing myriad “investments” and expanded federal programs. And common sense dictates that such programs, if they are to have any noticeable effect, will cost more than a dime. But how much?

The list examined here is only a partial one, as there is no way to estimate how much the “manufacturing hubs” Obama wants to create will cost–or his vague promises to spend more in general on education. But there are wishes on his list which should give us an idea of the massive growth in spending he wants.

1. Investment in green energy. If you add the costs of how much Obama has so far invested in 34 green energy companies which either failed or are heading for bankruptcy, the total is over $7 billion.
2. Regulations on carbon emissions. The estimated cost of what the United states would have to pay if it submitted to the Kyoto Protocol could range as high as four percent of the nation’s GDP. The nation’s GDP at the end of 2012 was $13.65 trillion. Four percent of that figure is $546 billion.
3. Fixing roads and bridges. According to the Federal Highway Administration in 2009, just to fix the nation’s bridges would cost $70.9 billion. That figure does not even address roads.
4. Making sure all kids can go to preschool. The average cost of preschools can range from $4,460 to $13,158 per year, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referrals Agencies (NACCRRA). How many children are preschool age in America? Roughly 8 million. Multiply those children by the lower figure of $4,460 and that amount reaches over $35 billion.
5. New mortgage regulations that would allow families with “solid credit” to buy homes, a la Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pre-financial crash. How much have Fannie and Freddie cost us? The Congressional Budget office says in the end the cost could reach $389 billion.

Total the costs of just these five wishes from Obama, and you get $1,047,900,000,000–over 1 trillion dollars. The President has run a deficit over $1 trillion all four years of his first term in office, and he has not proposed a budget which will cut spending–only ones that reduce the rate of future spending growth.