President Obama has just created a panel to figure out how to get our debt under control. Even when he makes a decision, such as this one, it is to pass the buck to someone else to do the heavy lifting. His attempt to overhaul health care turned into the Harry and Nancy Show. Obama campaigned and gave speeches while Pelosi and Reid shut out the Republicans and created the bill that could not be passed. Obama is now trying to put lipstick on that pig, by calling for a bipartisan meeting. But instead of starting over and getting ideas from everyone, they are basically going to pick over the stinking corpse of the bill that the Democrats could not get passed. It is obvious that the real objective is to either get some Republicans to sign on or to use the meeting as a club to beat the Republicans as the “party of No.”
Stop Me Before I Spend
This president can’t seem to control himself and he finds that he painted himself into a corner. If he tries to raise taxes on those who make less than $250,000 per year he will be breaking a major campaign promise. If he stops spending on his own, he will lose the left which is about the only support he has remaining. So he calls in Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to co-chair a committee charged with making the president a tailor made fig leaf, to allow him to cut spending and raise taxes, while shrugging his shoulders and saying, “I can’t go against the excellent advice of this august commission.”
If he wants to cut spending, he can just cut spending. He doesn’t need a commission to do so. How about an across the board spending freeze, except for national defense, until the economy grows enough to balance the budget and not with gimmicks like increasing discretionary spending now 24% and then saying you will freeze that same spending for the next three years? How about freezing government hiring? How about returning $500 billion in unspent stimulus money and $400 billion in repaid TARP money, plus interest, to the Treasury? Don’t hold your breath. That would require someone with executive experience who knows how to make a decision, rather than deliberating, like a legislator. Sarah Palin comes to mind, as does George Bush (I & II), Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan. These experienced executives knew how to put together a budget and make decisions. Chris Christie in New Jersey was just sworn in last month as governor and he immediately identified the problem as too much spending and got to work cutting it back. All that President Obama seems to know how to do is talk.
If we start advertising now, we may get enough resumes to review to find a replacement by 2012.
