Erosion of Confidence in Obama's Management

Professor Schaff directs your attention to the magnificent dressing down that MP/MEP Daniel Hannan gives PM Gordon Brown.  One notes that everything said by Hannan about the British government could be said about the current American government, only the numbers and percentages would be much larger. 

Above is a chart of actual deficits (under Bush) and projected deficits for the U.S.  It is fair to point out that the former would have been much larger without the Social Security surplus, which is about to disappear.  But by any reckoning, 2009’s downward bar should be very alarming. 

The red and pink bars represent Congressional Budget Office and White House estimates, respectively.  Both are optimistic.  If economic growth is disappointing, other things being equal, the deficits will be much larger. 

The question is this: under what kind of scenario can we expect to pay for all this?  Obama was repeatedly asked about the deficit during his press conference, and he repeatedly dodged the question.  Yes, it’s a good idea to invest in the healthcare and education.  But saying that doesn’t tell you whether these investments will show a return, or whether that return will be sufficient to offset other spending.  If President Obama has any clue about this, he isn’t letting it loose. 

Sooner or later these trillions have to be paid for.  What kind of future growth will we need to cover them, and can we possibly expect it?  Obama may not be inclined to answer such nagging questions, but they are eroding his base of confidence. 

See USAToday:

Assume for a minute that you earn $22,000 this year and spend $40,000. Next year, you earn $23,000 and spend $37,000. You'd be on the fast track to bankruptcy.

Now add eight more zeros to those numbers, and you get a sense for the federal government's dire financial situation.

See the San Diego Union:

Even without the hugely costly stimulus and bailout measures believed necessary to deal with the economic crisis, even without the highly costly Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the United States faces staggering annual deficits in coming years as 78 million baby boomers retire and the tab for Social Security and Medicare explodes. In 20 years, the average age of the nation will be what it now is in retirement haven Florida. A decade after that, the ratio of workers paying taxes to retirees receiving federal checks will drop to 2-to-1.

Something needs to be done to prepare for this coming entitlement tidal wave – a point Obama made repeatedly on the campaign trail, to his credit.

Now, to his discredit, Obama is simply ignoring these grim fiscal realities [my emphasis].

Obama can complain that he inherited a “structural deficit,” and he’s right.  But to keep talking about fiscal responsibility while proposing budgets like this is self-imposed blindness. 

Comments

[Markdownmom]

Mainstream media ignored this slam of socialism, but Jay Leno slams Obama in this video with the c-word (communism):

http://tinyurl.com/c4vkpq

[Mac]

These numbers really don't show us anything substantial. I don't think the President takes them too seriously as I find them hillarious. Keep up the great work Mr. President! Most of us still support the great job you are doing.

[KB]

Mac: If a deficit of nearly two trillion dollars in one year is nothing substantial, what in Heaven's name would count as substantial! A curve that declines from this years $1.85 trillion to a mere 600 billion or so in 2012, and thereafter grows steadily (according to the CBO)? On what planet is that insubstantial?

[Mac]

Well, you tell me KB, or Ken...3 decades of greed and living beyond our means has led to the situation we are now faced with. So, you think the President can clean this up in a day? You'll be lucky if it's cleaned up in a decade. So, just be patient and let things ride...that's all I'm saying.

[connie conservative]

I've got a relative who lived beyond his means, ran up credit cards, etc. So I suppose the way out of his mess should have been to take out more credit cards, find another relative to subsidize his over-spending, make his other relatives pay more of their salary to keep up his lifestyle, charge more, or spend more? By Obama's rationale, I guess he should have. It's the same thing.

I am sick of people trying to rationalize this inept, reckless, criminal spending of my money, my kids' money, and my grandkids' money.

I'm attending a Tea Party on the 15th, and I urge everyone else to also. It's time people with common sense speak up. These tea parties are not Republican or Democrat BTW, they are simply saying enough is enough. Our leaders need to take an economics class. Quit the spending!! And quit blaming this on Bush; Obama is doing this, not Bush or Clinton or Reagan. It's all Obama and Pelosi and Reid.