Well ladies and gentlemen, the moment of truth may have finally arrived. That day of reckoning is now very firmly upon us. And now we'll get to find out just how serious the American people really are when it comes to taking the necessary, even painful, steps needed to prevent the financial train wreck that we all know is inevitable if we are to remain on our present fiscal course. We can no longer stick our collective head in the sand and ignore the problem, in the hopes that it will somehow miraculously manage to correct itself. Denial on the part of the American people regarding the seriousness of what is now taking place, financially and economically speaking, will do nothing to actually solve a growing problem. Decisive action is what is now called for, and we should refrain from being to eager to castigate those proposing the drastic measures needed to solve that problem. How willing will they be to go along with the spending cuts that, I think it safe to say, we all know are going to be necessary if we are to ever have a chance of being able to recover from this mess? Where exactly do our priorities lie? Tackling the level of recklessness and out of control spending that has taken place at essentially unprecedented levels over the course of the last two years is something that should be of concern to every single American. As anyone who runs a household knows, you cannot continue to spend more money than you bring in. It's Economics 101, and is something that you learn very quickly that sometime sacrifices need to be made to prevent such a thing from happening. We are very rapidly approaching a fiscal situation that can have only one possible outcome if it continues to be left unattended. And it is an outcome that will prove fatal to our way of life. Which is exactly what Barry's plan has been all along. This is his chosen method to bring about that which he has said so often is his primary reason for living, it was his mantra all during his campaign, not all that long ago, his promise to "fundamentally transform" America. His plan is to spend so much money, so quickly, that our entire system of government simply implodes. He is doing his level best to bring about a complete collapse. And many Americans seem to be willing to go along with him. So we now have a White House that has projected that the federal deficit will spike to $1.65 Trillion in the current fiscal year, the largest dollar amount ever. How far are we, the American people, going to be willing to go in an effort to tackle this mind blowing level of debt that has been amassed under this very corrupt president. Yup, I said he's corrupt, I don’t care what Oprah says!
So Barry has now presented a budget that he calls a responsible alternative to what it is that those evil Republicans want to do. However, it has critics on both sides of the aisle with some Republicans saying that it would be better to do nothing than to implement this budget and even many Democrats saying it does not go far enough. Barry’s monstrosity of a $3.73 Trillion budget, is a budget that he says holds out the prospect of eventually bringing deficits under control through spending cuts and tax increases. By failing to admit his culpability regarding these massive deficits, he's lying to our collective face, because his fiscal blueprint largely ignores recommendations that came from his own deficit commission, including a plea to slash huge entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Almost laughably, Barry has called his new budget one consisting of "tough choices and sacrifices," but I'm not sure who he sees that is sacrificing. Certainly not him, since most of his proposed cuts would be held off until after the end of his first and, God willing, his last term. Ah, finally a man with the courage of his convictions, God love him. NOT! Overall, Barry has proposed trimming the deficit by $1.1 trillion over a decade although through some rather creative accounting, his changes would actually add to the deficits this year and next. How’s that? Barry is projecting the deficit will hit an all-time high of $1.65 Trillion this year and then drop sharply to $1.1 Trillion in 2012, with an expected improvement in the economy and as reductions in Social Security withholding and business taxes expire. An expected improvement in the economy? Just what Hell is supposed to bring that miracle about? Here we have a man whose administration has been caught pretty much flat footed regarding every change in our economy and employment situation. Everything always happens “unexpectedly.” So now he’s asking us to trust him, that all that he's now attempting to do will succeed in reducing our debt in what is essentially three years from now. Sure thing the Barry, no problamo! Barry's 2012 budget would actually add $8 Billion to the projected deficit for that year because the bulk of his theoretical savings achieved through a freeze in many domestic programs would then be devoted to increased spending in those important areas which Barry considers as priorities like education, clean energy and high-speed rail. "We have more work to do to live up to our promise by repairing the damage this brutal recession has inflicted on our people," Barry said.
With Republicans taking control of the House as a result of the November midterm elections and with them picking up seats in the Senate in part because of voter outrage over the soaring deficits, there is hope for the return of some adult supervision in Congress. And with Nancy no longer in charge, Barry is going to be forced to actually justify his radical expenditures. Because those same Republicans who are now in charge of the House have called Barry's efforts to reel in his spending spree, much too timid. Lawmakers are now in the process of debating $61 Billion in cuts for the remaining seven months of fiscal 2011. "Presidents are elected to lead and address big challenges," said Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. "The big challenge facing our economy today and our country tomorrow is the debt crisis. He's making it worse, not better." Not exactly what is expected of a leader. Also, I think Rep. Ryan could have taken his comment one step farther by saying that Barry effectively created the current debt crisis, or if not create it, at least took it to the dangerous level where we currently find it. Again, all by design. Not that long ago Barry assembled his farce of a deficit commission which accomplished nothing more than the wasting of money and time coming up with a host of painful recommendations, most of which did nothing more than to ignore the real problems that are begging to be addressed. Their recommendations included such idiotic suggestions as raising the Social Security retirement age and curbing benefit increases, eliminating or sharply scaling back popular tax breaks, reforming a financially unsound Medicare program and my personal favorite, almost doubling the federal tax on gasoline. The deficit panel called for savings by making these politically tough choices of $4 Trillion over a decade, four-times the savings that Barry is projecting. We cannot continue to spend money in such an irresponsible manner. And none of the recommendations that came from this commission took issue with the root cause of our present predicament. They all centered around ways to bring more money in not on slashing the amount of money going out. Spending needs to be cut across the board for everything except defense.
The Barry magical, mystery budget plan, which is certain to be changed by Republicans in Congress, would spend $3.73 Trillion in the 2012 budget year, which begins October 1, a reduction of 2.4 percent from what Barry projects will be spent in the current budget year. Of the $1.1 Trillion in deficit savings that Barry is projecting over the next 10 years, two-thirds would come from spending cuts including $400 Billion in savings from a five-year freeze on domestic programs that account for one-tenth of the budget. The other one-third of deficit savings would come from tax increases such as limiting the tax deductions high income taxpayers, a proposal that Barry put forward last year only to have it rejected by Congress. Barry also proposes raising taxes on energy companies. Barry's budget would raise $46 Billion over 10 years by eliminating various tax breaks to oil, gas and coal companies. Now there's a brilliant idea. The president's projected $1.65 Trillion deficit for the current year would be the highest dollar amount ever, surpassing the $1.41 Trillion deficit that he hit in 2009. It would also represent 10.8 percent of the total economy, the highest level since the deficit stood at 21.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1945, reflecting heavy borrowing to fight World War II. The president's 2012 budget projects that the deficits will total $7.21 Trillion over the next decade with the imbalances never falling lower below $607 Billion. Even then that would exceed the deficit record before Barry took office of $458.6 Billion in 2008, President George W. Bush's last year in office. And yet, Barry is so very fond of saying how it was that he was left with this incredible mess to clean up. From where I'm sitting, he took what was, admittedly a less than desirable deficit, and made it nearly four times worse through a policy of spending massive amounts of money that have accomplished exactly zero. How exactly is that something that can be blamed on Bush? And now he proposes a budget that is essentially worse than doing absolutely nothing, and what's worse is that he is very well aware of the fact that what he's proposing is very damaging to this country. He's spending us into oblivion and cares very little about the consequences because they are what will allow him to fulfill his promise to "fundamentally transform" America.
Senior administration officials have made claims that the new budget would address concerns about the country's long-term fiscal challenges while spending more money on education and research programs that the administration says are needed to boost economic growth. Ok, how is it that you spend "more" money, or as Barry and his boys like to claim, "invest" more money and still manage to reel in our present unsustainable and staggering amount of debt. Hopefully, Republicans in Congress, especially in the House which is now under their control, will demonstrate the necessary intestinal fortitude to perform a much needed major rewrite of Barry's plan with its proposed spending cuts that fall significantly short of the reductions congressional Republicans are seeking and the American people are demanding. "We're very eager to work with Republicans to cut spending and reduce our deficit," so said a senior administration official said Sunday night. Right! If you believe that I've got some ocean front property in Arizona I can sell you, cheap. All that this administration is the least bit interested in doing is exactly what they've been doing, the dictating to the rest of us regarding what it is that's needed to be done and simply doing it, legal or not. At $1.65 Trillion, the administration's projection for the 2011 deficit is significantly larger than the $1.48 Trillion estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office just a few weeks ago. The budget wouldn't do much, though, to arrest a future spike in the projected costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Barry has said he's open to making changes in these programs, but he wants cooperation from Republicans before he will begin. Right! He wants nothing more than to be in the position of being able to paint the Republicans as being the heartless ones. Besides there being a fiscal deficit there is another deficit that is very much present at this time as well. And that is a leadership deficit on the part of Barry "Almighty." He's a whiner and a complainer, neither are traits that one normally associates with those whom we view as being leaders.
Apparently administration officials have seen fit to break out their "Ouija Boards" since they are now projecting that the deficits will be trimmed to 3.2 percent of GDP by 2015 — one-third of the projected 2011 imbalance and a level they said would not harm the economy. And it’s all a crock, or to use someone else's words, it’s nothing more than voodoo Obamanomics. In just one area, the energy area, the budget would support Barry's wasteful goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and doubling the nation's share of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. Does this strike anybody other than me as being a complete waste of time and money. Here we are at a time when the price of gas is rocketing toward 4 bucks a gallon while at the same time sitting on top of vast oil reserves, watching the Middle East, our current primary source of oil, as it goes up in smoke and we’re blabbering on about electric cars. The budget proposes program terminations or spending reductions for more than 200 programs at an estimated savings of $33 Billion in 2012. In the big scheme of things, that's a drop in the bucket. The biggest tax hike would come from a proposal to trim the deductions the wealthiest Americans can claim for charitable contributions, mortgage interest and state and local tax payments. The administration proposed this tax hike last year but it was a nonstarter in Congress. While Barry's demonstrated his being rather gutless in that his budget completely avoided necessary cuts in entitlement programs, no matter how painful they may be, he had no qualms whatsoever in calling for $78 Billion in reductions to Pentagon spending over five years. Gee, now that makes sense. The surge in deficits reflect the deep 2007-2009 recession, which cut into government tax revenues as millions were thrown out of work and prompted an insane amount of government spending in a failed attempt to jump-start economic growth and stabilize the banking system. It was doomed from the beginning because it is a proven fact that you cannot spend your way out of an economic downturn the magnitude of the one brought on by the Democrats themselves. Republicans point to still-elevated unemployment levels, 10.3 according to a recent Gallup poll, and charge the stimulus programs were nothing but an utter failure. The administration contends the spending was needed to keep the country from falling into an even deeper slump. To that I say, “Prove it!"
Finally, speaking on Barry's budget, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says that just doesn’t cut it. “Obama jumped federal spending dramatically,” Mr. Norquist writes on Politico. The president ratchets up spending even though Americans made it clear in the voting booth that they want politicians to tighten the purse strings, Norquist says. “The American people were quite clear they want the overspending to end. Obama’s budgets continue the high level of spending and move to increase taxes to catch up with this overspending. Obama was not listening in November.” Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has come out and soundly criticized Barry's fiscal 2012 budget, saying it locked spending at "completely unsustainable" levels. "The president talks like someone who recognizes that spending is out of control, but so far it hasn't been matched with action," McConnell said in a statement. "Americans don't want a spending freeze at unsustainable levels. They want cuts, dramatic cuts. And I hope the president will work with us on achieving them soon." Yup, like that's gonna happen!
