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Federal Spending: It's a good thing President Obama isn't in the private sector. If he was, the budget he just put forward for the next 10 years just might get him indicted for fraud.
Of all the promises the president made during the 2008 presidential campaign and last year's budget debates, none rings so hollow now as the pledge of "fiscal responsibility."
As a recent nonpartisan analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows, our current budget path is, to use the euphemism du jour, unsustainable. It will leave a nearly insurmountable mountain of debt and spending to future generations.
Just last year, U.S. public debt totaled $7.5 trillion — a sum equal to all the indebtedness accumulated from our 225 years in existence as a nation. But by 2020, total U.S. public debt will be $20.3 trillion — an increase of 171% in just 10 years.
By itself, such a sum wouldn't matter. But it's the weight it will place on the economy that's important. Last year, debt as a share of GDP — the recognized measure for how indebted a country is — stood at 53%. By 2020, it will be over 90%.
And that's not including the hundreds of billions of debts run up by Social Security and Medicare, which, technically, the government says it "owes to itself."
But that 90% number is key. A recent study conducted by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff for the National Bureau of Economic Research found that high levels of debt can have a severe impact on a nation's economy — and thus, its ability to pay.
"Above 90%," they reckon, "median growth rates fall by 1%, and average growth falls considerably more." So all the budget's grandiose projections, including economic growth of over 3% a year, are doubtful at best.
We are not only stealing money from the pockets of our children and grandchildren. We are impoverishing them as well.
Spending, of course, is the big reason. As David Freddoso of the Washington Examiner points out, the budget plan submitted by the president shows spending growing each and every year over the next decade — despite the worst fiscal crisis of our nation's history.
All told, spending will swell from $3.5 trillion, or 20% of GDP, in 2009 to $5.7 trillion, or 25.2% of GDP, in 2020. Since World War II, debt has averaged 20% of GDP, so the 2020 projection represents a permanent increase of 25% in the size of government that will weigh like a millstone around the economy's neck. Spending over the next 10 years will balloon by $19.7 trillion.
Health Reform: The chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., has found a new way to ram big government health care down an unwilling America's throat: pass it without a vote. If Republicans go along with Democratic leaders' latest strategy to enact ObamaCare, the GOP ...
Commerce: A key part of the president's much-awaited strategy for economic recovery came with Thursday's unveiling of two blue-ribbon panels on exports. Here's a better idea: Pass the pending free-trade pacts. President Obama set a goal to double U.S. exports in five years in his State of ...
Mideast: Critics of the Gulf wars to this day say Iraq had no real intention of building nuclear arms. They might be right. A book released this week makes the case that Saddam Hussein wanted to buy his bombs. According to "Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's ...
The bubbly enthusiasm that many analysts express about the Chinese economy reminds me of the old-time variety show host Lawrence Welk, who banished worries each week with soothing sounds from his "Champagne Music Makers." China watchers should turn off the music and listen to Premier Wen Jiabao, ...
The most disturbing part of the Obama-Care debate is not about where Republicans and Democrats disagree, but where they agree. Take this issue of those with pre-existing illnesses. Many Republicans actually support government action to prevent insurance companies from refusing to insure them. ...
Posted By: OBSERVER U.K(500) on 3/12/2010 | 3:45 AM ET
IMPEACH ! IMPEACH ! IMPEACH ! THIS OBAMANATION whilst there is still time to pull AMERICA back from the abyss that he and his henchmen are taking you towards. "GOD HELP AMERICA".
Posted By: Osamas Pajamas(1265) on 3/12/2010 | 2:02 AM ET
Geez. If OhBummer had a job in the private sector he'd get slaughtered and go running out looking for a government job for which the performance standards are lower. Oh. Wait a minute. He already has a job like that.
Posted By: grasshopper525(40) on 3/11/2010 | 9:07 PM ET
the insanity will not stop until we the people stop enabling them, your government is addicted to your money!
Posted By: Serfdumb(965) on 3/11/2010 | 8:54 PM ET
Obama's reply, 'Frankly America, I don't give a damn'. We already pay 50% in Fed, State & local taxes, and for what? - lawyers for civilian defense of terrorists & prosecution of Navy Seals, propaganda driven education & no sports, pot-hole laden highways, security by Big Sis, health-care and welfare for illegals, plus ever more Gov't control over our lives. We pay ~ twice as much tax as in 1950 and even with both parents working our Standard of Living has probably declined, freedom has.
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