It’s the sound of me playing the tiniest violin in the universe:
…as much as I hate the idea of the leader of the free world being short on sleep, it’s hard to work up a lot of sympathy for a guy who can’t sleep with his own decisions, and is still trying to figure out ways to drive the deficit even higher … no matter how often he says his universal health plan is going to cut costs. In fact, the news that he can’t sleep and can’t stop is more than a little disturbing.
And you know that the last way that he’ll try to do anything about the deficit is to cut spending. Unless it’s military spending, of course.
No rest for the wicked.
I think Jules is missing the point. This posturing is just the warmup to the big act: Obama will — with a heavy heart! — reluctantly conclude that the only way to reduce the deficits is to raise taxes. (“Others say to do nothing, but I know we must take action….”) Of course, he won’t want to, just as he didn’t want the government to own GM and Chrysler. And though responsibility weighs heavy on the conscience of the Emperor, he will do what he must to make us prosperous again! After he raises taxes — of course, only on “the wealthy” — he will find that the economy stubbornly refuses to grow, and the solution will be… you guessed it… more government spending. And more taxes.
BBB
And I guess more heavy-hearted posturing to keep up with the flow of bad news. Good thing this stuff never gets old.
This idea that Obama is responsible for the deficit has become the big lie of 2009 — it’s repeated so often that even reasonable people seem to be taken in. Click my name for a reality-based take on the question.
Jim, by the CBO’s own estimates (compared against the as-is raw data from 2008 – the worst of W’s deficits at a hair over $400B), Obama’s FIRST-YEAR deficits are projected to be $1850B. They decline until 2012, hitting a projected “low” of $600B or so – and then ramp back up continually from there due to Obama’s proposed expansion of long-term obligations, reaching a hair under $1200B for 2019. You can’t spend before you create – and the current policies spend more and encourage reduced production.
“Social entitlements announce to the world that the government will buy all the poverty its citizens care to create. You’d be amazed how much poverty you get that way.”
Jim, by the CBO’s own estimates (compared against the as-is raw data from 2008 – the worst of W’s deficits at a hair over $400B), Obama’s FIRST-YEAR deficits are projected to be $1850B.
Yes, and over 90% of the deficits in Obama’s first four years are projected to come from either the business cycle or spending initiated by Bush. Click my name for the reference.
Social entitlements announce to the world that the government will buy all the poverty its citizens care to create.
Yeah, look at those millions of happy poverty creators….
You could just as well say that people make themselves sick so they can use their health insurance.
Jim, I don’t give a damn WHY Obama (or Bush for that matter!) feel the need to spend OUR money. We can’t afford ANY of it. Period, full-stop, bar none. We need a 100% moratorium on spending in government, at all levels, until the government debt is paid off. We might – might! – do OK with a “zero deficits” policy until then, demanding a balanced budget on an annual basis until we have an actual surplus (not some accounting gimmickry as we saw about 10 years ago, which actually counted SSI as “surplus.”) – but until then, no more spending!
As to the “happiness” of the poverty creators – again, do I sound like I give a damn? When they can afford to be happy without my paying for it, then I might care – and I say that as someone who’s “job” for the last quarter-year has been to seek gainful employ! If you want to truly HELP someone in poverty – make the experience painful, so they seek to lift themselves from it. This is something that our grandparents and great-grands knew – why is it a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around now? Remove the incentive to live fat and happy (or even thin and hungry) on OUR money, and it won’t happen near so much. “The prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates the mind wonderfully.”
We can’t afford ANY of it. Period, full-stop, bar none.
Nonsense. Yes, you’d rather spend it on something else. But there’s no question you can afford it.
We need a 100% moratorium on spending in government, at all levels, until the government debt is paid off.
That would be never; without government spending on the IRS there is no revenue to use to pay down the debt.
So you leave the IRS, and lawyers and cops and judges and prisons for enforcing the tax laws, but stop spending on everything else (so no military, no road work, no food inspections, no air traffic control, no border guards, etc.). We’d be like Somalia. The economy would plummet so quickly that you’d never collect enough revenue to pay down the debt.
If you want to truly HELP someone in poverty – make the experience painful, so they seek to lift themselves from it.
Just think how much we’re helping the 18% of children who live in poverty!
“The prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates the mind wonderfully.”
That’s what’s wrong with poor people (especially those children) — they aren’t concentrating hard enough! If they concentrated, good paying jobs and affordable housing and health care and child care would just appear.
Yes, and over 90% of the deficits in Obama’s first four years are projected to come from either the business cycle or spending initiated by Bush. Click my name for the reference.
A lot of the falloff in the business cycle is due to Obama policies. The “stimulus” or ARRA ($600 billion in spending increases or more) alone accounts for more than 10% of the deficits of the current fiscal year and the next three.