A. Barton Hinkle Says Obama Puts a Happy Face on a Federal Mess
"What we know," said President Obama to a business group a few days ago, "is that our'"our fiscal problems are not short-term deficits. Our discretionary budget, that portion of the federal budget that isn't defense or Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, the entitlement programs, is at its smallest level in my lifetime, probably since Dwight Eisenhower. We are not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs out there." A. Barton Hinkle says you could call this Obama's version of the old joke: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" And his minimization of reality isn't limited to fiscal matters.