President Barack Obama has a new budget. So it’s time to suspend reality and listen and nod your head and pine for four more years.
deficit
photo by cliff1066
Just because Democrats are statically stuck on stupid, why do they think everyone else is? What I am referring to is static analysis of changes to the tax code. Democrats always want to have any potential changes statically scored. In other words if Democrats raise rates 10%, naturally, the government will get 10% more revenue. If on the other hand you cut tax rates 10%, a very bad thing, tax revenues will fall 10%. The problem is that they have been proved wrong every time. In other words, Democrats believe that if they raise tax rates you will be too stupid to change your behavior in response.
For all the grandiose talk of cutting $4 trillion which will remain undefined, or $2 trillion which is not bold enough, President Obama proves once again when faced with a real solution, he will do anything to kill it.
You have to smack your head listening to Schumer, Weiner, Pelosi, Reid wailing like crybabies that the spending cuts proposed by the Republicans are too harsh. Perhaps it’s time to shut the government down and like a parent at wits end, send the babies home for a timeout.
President Barack Obama released his budget blueprint on the same day the White House says it expects the budget deficit for the current fiscal year ending in October to hit $1.65 trillion. His budget calls for spending cuts of $1 trillion spread out over ten years. Click to read more
New York, like many states, is in the midst of a state budget crisis. The state is facing a $14 billion budget deficit. The cause of the problem is pretty clear, too much spending. State spending has grown far in excess of inflation and population growth. What provided the wallop is the sharp downturn on Wall Street, which drastically cut revenues to the state. But the state does not have any reserves to speak of.
We’re All in This Together, Right?
Everyone is being asked to tighten their belts. The Democrats had previously held the State Assembly and now control both houses of the legislature and the governorship. Among the strongest supporters of the Democrats in this very blue state are the labor unions. They wholeheartedly support the spending increases that the Democrats propose every year especially where those increases shower wages and benefits on their members.
So while the Democrats, with no place to hide, are scrambling to close the budget gap why do I see commercial after commercial on television urging me to tell the governor and the legislature to make the necessary cuts elsewhere and not to touch their sacred cow. The commercials are from the police unions, the teacher unions, the health care worker unions, the university professor unions, the public employee unions, all urging us to rise up and make sure the cuts are not directed at them.
Chutzpah
After years and years of spending increases under both Republicans and Democrats, and year after year of fat labor contracts for these unions because the politicians were too cowardly to confront them or turn down their money and electoral support, we are now in this mess. But now instead of shouldering their share of the burden, some of which was a result of their greed, they are telling their fellow New Yorkers to take on more of the pain and spare them. How about a little bipartisanship on behalf of the unions and suck it up and help your fellow New Yorkers carry the load you created.
Where’s Ronald Reagan when you need him?
“Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse” — Barack Obama, Op-ed piece in Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2009
Each day we wait…The most massive increase in government spending in the history of the Republic was passed on Friday night by the Senate, making it ready for President Obama’s signature. Even Senator Sherrod Brown, had a private plane take him from his mother’s wake to cast the deciding vote on Friday night.
No Time to Read the Bill
Despite the enormity of this deficit spending increase that will saddle our children and our children’s children with a huge debt burden, and despite promises from President Obama concerning transparency and time to adequately review legislation, no one had the time to read this bill before it was passed. You don’t believe me? Do the math. In 48 hours there are 2,880 minutes. The stimulus bill is over 1,100 pages long. So if you did nothing else for the 48 hours, you didn’t sleep, you didn’t eat, you didn’t go to the lavatory, you would have about 2 1/2 minutes to read and comprehend each page in the bill.
As President Obama said in the Post, we have no choice, this is URGENT! So naturally, President Obama was standing with pen ready as soon as the Senate passed the bill. It was raced up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to the waiting Chief Executive, or not.
- Friday night – President Obama does not sign the bill
- Saturday – President Obama does not sign the bill
- Sunday – President Obama does not sign the bill
- Monday – President Obama does not sign the bill
Pretty urgent, huh? “Each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs.” So I guess the crisis has passed? I guess losing more jobs no longer matters?
Do you think it might have been prudent to give the members of Congress and the American people the extra four days to review the bill before signing it? Of course it would be prudent, but the more we examine this the more it becomes clear that this is not about stimulus. It is about rushing through a bevy of liberal spending programs under the guise of an emergency precisely so that it would not receive the scrutiny it deserves, because if it did, most Americans would be outraged.
The reason for delaying the signing for four days, is to get the most political mileage out of the signing. Signing it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the Monday holiday, would simply not have the news coverage for President Obama to bask in.
American’s Interest or Self Interest
So despite all the rhetoric, the American people get a massive debt burden, the Democrats in Congress get all the spending goodies that have been stored in the closet waiting for the right crisis opportunity, and President Obama gets just the right amount of limelight. Is that the change you were hoping for?
