During budget season, war-spending is Obama’s best friend. For instance, the president claims that he has found $2 billion in savings over the next decade to help tame record budget deficits. But the reality is that he “saves” hundreds of billions of dollars by not continuing to spend $170 billion a year in Iraq until 2019. Obama includes war-spending in his baseline projections to be able to show a $1.49 billion savings over ten years. Yet even under the previous administration we were supposed to be out of Iraq by 2012. It’s highly dissembling to say we can get savings by cutting spending that isn’t actually going to occur. For the details on the war-spending gimmick, read this Committee on Budget memo.

By the way, the only other savings comes from his proposed tax increases. He plans on reducing the deficit by $639.7 billion over ten years with only his income tax increase and a $311 billion reduction in the debt service.

— Veronique de Rugy is an economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.