Obama: Tomorrow We Scrimp, But Tonight We Spend Like There's No Tomorrow!
The ever-credulous Washington Post reports just the facts in a science-fictional piece titled "Stimulus aside, Obama vows future budget restraint." Read some details and decide for yourself whether the truth is out there:
Two weeks away from assuming the presidency, Obama vowed Tuesday to "bring a long-overdue sense of responsibility and accountability to Washington" and called the need for budget reform "an absolute necessity."…
"Many will focus on the upfront cost of this legislation," [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] was to tell a House Democratic Policy and Steering Committee forum, according to an excerpt of her prepared remarks. "While we are not discussing small sums, focusing on the price tag alone ignores the cost of inaction and the real payoff in terms of job creation and increased revenues to our Treasury."
While promising to fight waste and to make tough budgetary decisions, however, Obama warned that the nation could face trillion-dollar deficits for years to come. Eight years ago, the federal budget ran a surplus; the deficit on Sept. 30 was about $455 billion. That was before the government began spending nearly half of a $700 billion bailout fund for the financial sector….
Obama has not detailed solutions for vexing problems such as growing demands on Social Security and Medicare. His prescriptions to make government accountable could easily run aground, much like those of predecessors who vowed to tackle government waste, fraud and abuse.
That's the same Obama who's pulling for a $775 billion stimulus package. And who has been trotting the spend-now, save-later line to sellout crowds for months now. That's the same Nancy Pelosi, by the way, who came into power saying the Dems would enforce fiscal discipline and then pushed a farm bill that blew the stops out on subsidies and whatnot.
The good news is that Obama is not from Texas. Both LBJ and George W. Bush spent like not just drunken sailors but like falling-down-drunk drunken sailors. Inflation-adjusted discretionary spending increases during the past half-century have averaged 1.7 percent, with LBJ and Bush hitting high notes of 6.6 percent to 14.8 percent. Who wants to bet Obama's first budget comes closer to the high numbers than the low?
To stoke your fears of a unified government and spending (and that was all before we became the bailout nation), go here.