Obama and the Blame Game
S.O.S. – Stop Obama’s Spending!
I could write ten pages today on the errors of President Obama’s economic address yesterday at the liberal Brookings Institution. But I know your time is valuable, so I’ll limit myself to just two points.
First, the president attacked the Bush Administration yet again. To borrow a phrase from the Left, it’s time to move on. You’re in charge now – the buck stops with you, Mr. President. But it was also very odd to watch President Obama attack a program he voted for (TARP) and in doing so condemn many of the officials in his administration who were responsible for that program.
His Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, was president of the New York Federal Reserve and played a key role in the formulation of TARP, as did Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who Obama just nominated for a second term. If Obama thinks so poorly of the program, how much sense does it make to keep these guys around?
Second, his policies aren’t helping. The stimulus spending has been a failure – at least in meeting Obama’s stated goals to create millions of jobs and keep unemployment at 8%. Undaunted, Obama is doubling down on that bad bet – using TARP money to finance another stimulus spending bill.
There is some logic to a government’s deficit spending in bad economic times. But that assumes the government will rein in spending when things improve. This administration shows no sign of reining things in. In fact, Obama said yesterday that his plan is to “spend our way out of this recession.” And he’s hitting the accelerator.
New debt figures were released yesterday. During Obama’s first year in office, the United States government ran a $1.4 trillion deficit. At the rate things are going now, our annual deficit in Obama’s second year could exceed $1.7 trillion. This level of spending is unsustainable, and it’s just not possible to raise taxes high enough to support it. But that won’t stop the liberals from trying, and their planned tax hikes will destroy the economy.
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