It was much more than simply arrogance on display at today’s White House Press Conference. More lies and obfuscation and finger-pointing. More ducking responsibility for his own lack of leadership. Stunning, but not surprising.
Hard as he may try, and contrary to what he said, he does not have a mandate to increase the national debt and continue deficit spending year after year just because he was re-elected. The first time he was elected, he ran on decreasing the deficit by half by the end of his first term. It was $500 billion when he took over. The deficit isn’t $250 billion. It is 1.2 trillion, for four years in a row. The Republican majority House was also re-elected. And that’s where the spending is authorized. According to the Constitution. I know. He doesn’t like it, nor has he tried to protect and defend it. Remember, that is what he took an oath to do. And what he will do again next week. But that’s another story altogether. The people don’t want deficit spending. They want the debt to be paid down. Not added to.
At the presser, he said he cut the debt by $4 trillion dollars. Where? On Mars? He has added over a trillion dollars in deficit spending for each of the first four years of his administration. And, plans on adding another $4 trillion dollars over the next four years in his second term. Bringing the total national debt from the $10 trillion he inherited, to $16 trillion now, and to $20 trillion by the end of his second term. And he stands there with a straight face and chastises Republicans for being irresponsible for not wanting to pay our bills. And the press corp let him stand there and get away with it. Not one question challenging the truth and voracity of his claims.
On the contrary. He was irresponsible for not only maxing out the credit card, but for treating it like there is no maximum amount he can spend. He paints a picture of dire consequences if the U.S. doesn’t pay its bills. Like a child who misbehaves, he has to face the music. His actions have consequences. He is the one that overspent. Now, not only he, but all of us must pay the piper and face whatever dire consequences we have coming because we’re tearing up that credit card. Forget about raising the debt ceiling another dime. Deal with it. Only after that will this country be able to recover and get itself on the right track again.
He proved himself incapable of making the tough decisions needed to insure the sustainability of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. That is the epitome of irresponsibility. Instead, he demagogues Republicans for wanting to cut it. The hard truth is, those programs can’t be saved without cutting them somewhere and somehow. They no longer fit the demographics for which they were designed. Period. And they cost many times more than they were anticipated to be in the first place. Sooner or later, interest rates will return to ‘normal’ levels. And by the time that happens, the interest on our debt will be equal to or greater than our GDP. By any definition, that’s broke. That’s irresponsible.
Fact is, he is the irresponsible one. First by neglecting his duty to pass a budget and work by one for all of his first term. Having no budget to hold him back allowed him to run up the debt via CR’s (continuing resolutions) for every year of his administration. Paying off donors, unions, and bailing out his buddies created no jobs. It merely completed the quid pro quo. Wasting taxpayer dollars on one green energy bankruptcy after another. And enriching the bankruptcy lawyers in the process. It’s a win, win, lose. Green investors who are also donors and campaign bundlers win. The bankruptcy lawyers win for handling the bankruptcies with zero transparency. And the taxpayers lose all the way around.
One of the punch lines in this presser was his declaration that the government is part of the economy. As if that is a justification for the never-ending spending. He is right to the extent that the government is part of the economy. It is the overhead of the economy. It produces nothing. It only takes from the producers in taxes, and borrows and spends on growing the government even bigger. The cost of government used to be 18 percent of GDP. Then 20 percent under Bush 43. Now it is over 22 percent heading to 25 percent. The community organizer does not care that there isn’t enough money to sustain a government this big. Nor does he care that as government grows, the private sector gets smaller, along with our freedom and liberties.
That’s Obama’s vision of fundamental change in America. That’s what being irresponsible is. And there’s no way in hell he can embarrass me for not paying our bills by not raising the debt ceiling. It’s time for him to be spanked (figuratively of course), take the credit card away, and do what every other American has to do to survive within their means. Whatever happens is the result of his misbehavior. It won’t be the end of the world as we know it. It will mark the dawn of sanity in running the country.
