Obama's Economic Illiteracy

President Obama’s speech this week on the looming budget crisis correctly described the calamity we face as a nation as a result of the staggering, and rapidly increasing, national debt. Then, Mr Obama ruined any credibility he may have had by blaming everyone else in the room for the problem, despite the fact that he is personally responsible for doubling the nation debt in his own brief tenure in the White House.

Mr Obama then thoroughly trashed the serious and thoughtful plan presented by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) to reduce spending and the national debt, incorrectly accusing the republicans of abandoning the elderly, the poor and the children. While that is a pretty standard democrat response to any plan, on any subject, presented by any republican, it is demonstrably false. Mr Obama went on to outline his plan that would continue all entitlement programs forever, while magically saving four trillion dollars in the next 12 years.

The problem is that the dilema so accurately described by Mr Obama in his opening remarks is real, and will not go away by wishing it away. In this area, unlike other areas where Mr Obama has enjoyed success, a good speech will do nothing to ease the problem. What is required is action; and Mr Obama’s proposal is nothing more than to continue to accelerate towards the cliff. He is like a man returning to a burning building holding a gas can.

Mr Obama’s statement of the problem followed by his intention to simply go ahead on his current spending plan is nothing less than dereliction of duty. It is irresponsible, immature and verges on criminal negligence. Likewise, the Senate has refused to seriously consider reductions in spending that have to be made. It is not like there is an alternative; spending must be reduced. But, like Mr Obama, his allies in the congress have been accusing republican attempts at fiscal restraint as abandoning the elderly, the poor, and the children, none of whom could possibly survive without the largess of their fellow taxpayers.

Where can we go to find expenditures to eliminate and thus reduce spending? Everywhere! The Heritage Foundation has identified more than $300 billion dollars in savings that could be made today by eliminating or reducing the spending on a variety of programs from all over the federal leviathan. They have suggested saving $60 billion in unspent stimulus funds, $45 billion by devolving the Federal Highway Program to the states, $15 billion in farm subsidies, $8 billion by returning educational Pell Grants to 2009 levels, $6.5 billion in reduced energy subsidies, and $1.9 billion by privatizing Amtrak, and many others. A personal favorite of my own is a savings of $300 million by returning the House and Senate budgets to the 2009 level of only $2.2 billion!

All of these programs, and literally hundreds of others funded by the federal government would be fine, even noble expenditures for a government that enjoyed huge surpluses in federal revenue. If we actually had the money, we’d all like to fund Pell Grants and provide subsidies to farmers. But the government of the United States is broke. We don’t have the money. We are borrowing from the Chinese and printing money just to keep up with the level of federal spending.

If we do not have the money, what responsible individual actually advocates continuing to spend what we do not have on marginal or even silly programs like the $2 billion we spend on the Foreign Agriculture Service? Much of the federal budget is wasted on unnecessary and wasteful expenditures on programs that just don’t matter and just don’t deserve to receive tax money from taxpayers, living and yet unborn. Chasing these recipients from the federal trough will take leadership and courage to do what is right for the American people. Unfortunately, we must endure nearly two more years of this incompetent president, who is neither a leader nor courageous.