Quotes of the day
Observed at a press conference:
A: I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term. Our budget meets that pledge and puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade…by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt…
Q: if you look on one page — page 171, which I’m sure you’ve read, it is the central page in this, the deficits go from $1.1 trillion down to $768 billion, and they go down again, all the way to $607 billion in 2015. billion in 2015. And then they start to creep up again, and by 2021, it’s at $774 billion. And the total over those 10 years — the total debt is $7.2 trillion on top of the $14 trillion we already have. How can you say that we’re living within our means?.
One answer apparently is that arithmetic is currently beyond the competence of a vast part of the American people, so politicians can say whatever gibberish they like until the bond markets stop working.
It has been obvious for two years that the projected deficits of the US are unfinanceable. And that’s before they were as bad as they now are. Is it that the people in power (a) can’t add; or (b) they won’t add; or (c) they just don’t care? HT: PL
February 16th, 2011 at 10:17 am
I would be willing to bet, without even looking, that there are some fairly optimistic assumptions baked into that budget. Those would be things like low unemployment, low fuel prices, little to no inflation, no wars, unicorns and apple pie. Meanwhile, in the real world, we burn food for fuel, oil is expensive, we are at peak copper prices, we are fighting a shooting war, and we have low inflation with rising prices. That last is a neat trick, but you can prove anything if you get to pick the numbers. Google climate change if you disbelieve me.
What Obama is saying is “I am running up the debt half as fast.” For the financially illiterate, that translates as “I am so broke no one will lend me any more money, but I’m better than I used to be.” Nothing is solved. Without a believable plan to be running a surplus, soon, we’re just another deadbeat nation with an excuse for the past and a story for the future.
February 16th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
If you look at his record, it has never bothered 0bama to make patently false statements. He has proven to be be a smoother liar than even Bill Clinton.
In any event, this is political theater. The House controls the purse strings. What is truly disheartening is that the House Republicans are showing little enthusiasm for serious spending cuts.
My expectations for this Congress were low. Sadly they are not proving me wrong.
February 18th, 2011 at 1:19 am
It’s not (c) that they don’t care. It’s (d) the outcome that the fervently desire.