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Politics

Obama Puts a Happy Face on a Federal Mess

Aside from that, Mr. President, how did you like the play?

A. Barton Hinkle | 12.2.2013 12:00 PM

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"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."

You could call this Obama's version of the old joke: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" Saying "we are not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs" '" aside from Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid '" is like saying the Titanic had a great voyage, aside from the iceberg. We spend so much on those three social programs that, if current trends continue, outlays on them plus interest on the national debt will consume every last federal dollar in a little more than a decade.

But then it isn't really just those three programs, is it? From 2000 to 2012, federal spending on food stamps increased 400 percent. Not double. Not triple. Four hundred percent. So aside from the big three plus food stamps, we're not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs.

Federal housing assistance has grown from less than $30 billion (in constant dollars) in 2000 to nearly $60 billion today. Aside from that, though, we're not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs.

The federal government has 79 different means-tested anti-poverty programs providing food assistance, educational aid, housing, cash transfers, utility assistance and other social services. Aside from that, though, we are not lavishly etc. etc.

There are 47 different federal job-training programs. But aside from that. . . .

Obama also mentioned defense spending. Adjusted for inflation, defense spending rose 64 percent from 2002 to 2011. But '" well, you know.

The president says discretionary spending is at the smallest level "in my lifetime, probably since Dwight Eisenhower." (Obama was born only a year and a half after the Eisenhower administration ended.) Discretionary spending might have fallen as a share of the budget, but that is only because so-called mandatory spending '" i.e., spending driven by formulas Congress can change if it chooses '" has grown so rapidly. It certainly isn't smaller in real terms.

Using constant 2005 dollars, defense discretionary spending in 1962 was $52.5 billion. Last year it was $670.5 billion.

In 1962, non-defense discretionary spending was $19.5 billion. Last year, it was $615.5 billion.

Aside from that, though, the president was absolutely right.

Obama's aside-from-that approach extends well beyond fiscal analysis. When insurance companies began canceling policies that did not meet new requirements under the Affordable Care Act, critics pointed out that the president had said people could keep their insurance if they liked it '" not just once, but dozens of times.

Fed up with being quoted accurately, Obama tried to weasel out of his repeated promise by saying: "What we said was, you can keep [your plan] if it hasn't changed since the law was passed." (PolitiFact gave him a pants-on-fire rating for that howler.) Translation: Aside from that, you can keep your plan.

Back in the spring, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was asked during congressional testimony if the NSA collects "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." Replied Clapper: "No sir."

We now know the NSA collects metadata about millions of Americans' telephone calls. Also, millions of contact lists from personal email accounts. Also, millions of buddy lists from instant-messaging services. Lots of audio and video chats, photographs and documents, too. It even had a test project to collect data on American citizens' cell-phone locations.

Aside from that, though, it doesn't collect a thing.

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat," Obama told The Boston Globe in 2007. Aside from the occasional attack on Libya, that is.

Obama "is a disciple of the pay-as-you-go approach to federal spending that helped produce a budget surplus in the ''90s," said the Detroit Free Press when it endorsed him in 2008. This will be the first fiscal year the deficit has come in under $1 trillion. Aside from that, though, the statement was pretty accurate.

"We've restored America's standing" in the world, the president-elect said in 2009. With the exception of Japan and Russia, America's favorability ratings across the world have dipped since then, according to a 2012 Pew survey of global attitudes. The "Muslim public remains largely critical" and in China, "confidence in the American president has declined by 24 percentage points and approval of his policies has fallen 30 points." But aside from that. …

"Sea Level Rise Accelerating Faster Than Initial Projections," reported Climate Central last year. Aside from that, Obama was correct to claim his 2008 clinching of the Democratic nomination marked the moment when "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

According to Esquire, "20 years from now, we're going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph." According to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Obama has "never done anything wrong." According to Newsweek's Evan Thomas, the president is "standing above the country. Above '" above the world. He's sort of God."

Set against such puffery we have the rather damning record of the past five years. But aside from that, it's completely true.

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NEXT: Supreme Court Declines To Hear Case Relating to Online Retailers Collecting Sales Tax

A. Barton Hinkle is senior editorial writer and a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

PoliticsPolicyObama AdministrationBarack Obama
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  1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Each successive president is going to have a bigger turd to shine.

    1. cavalier973   12 years ago

      There's an interesting mental image. I think there should be a law that whenever the President (whoever he or she is) gives a speech or a press conference, etc., he must hold a giant turd in one hand and a cloth in the other, and vigorously polish the turd while he speaks.

      1. Rich   12 years ago

        If that law were passed, I'd even allow O a turd term.

        1. Almanian!   12 years ago

          So a "turd turd", given the first two were/are turds as well

          1. Rich   12 years ago

            It's turds all the way down!

            1. CherylMcDaniel31   12 years ago

              I get paid over $87 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I've been doing,...WWW.JUMP85.COM

  2. cavalier973   12 years ago

    Puddles puts a happy face on "Royals" by Lorde.

    1. fish   12 years ago

      Thank you for that...my idiot kid always plays the original when we're in the car.....now I can shoot back!

    2. Hugh Akston   12 years ago

      That was fucking terrifying. But I do like those guys doo-wop version of Miley's We Can't Stop.

      1. cavalier973   12 years ago

        What was frightening about it? I thought it quite clever and amusing.

  3. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

    Do people pay any attention to what he says? It seemed like the answer was no well before the last election.

    1. UCrawford   12 years ago

      The people who believe him are either too stupid to understand or too locked into the whole R vs. D game to care what he's actually saying.

      I'm sure the "business group" he was speaking to has a membership that includes very few actual businessmen.

      1. cavalier973   12 years ago

        They all run companies that make green energy. They eat a lot of beans and then fart into fans, which turns the turbines to make electricity!

        1. Loki   12 years ago

          They eat a lot of beans and then fart into fans, which turns the turbines to make electricity!

          That doesn't sound very green to me. All that methane produced is a greenhouse gas too.

          1. cavalier973   12 years ago

            Chalk up another failure to Obama's green energy initiative!

    2. Hugh Akston   12 years ago

      I think Obama's strategy is to turn the bully pulpit into a white-noise generator. Lull people to sleep with unyielding, repetitive speechifying, and when they fail to object to whatever shit is coming out of your mouth, you call it a mandate.

      1. Drake   12 years ago

        Already happened.

    3. AdamJ   12 years ago

      It seems they pay attention to the words but not the actions. Of course Dear Leader would never lie to us...

  4. Sevo   12 years ago

    So, this "business group", are they involved in business or just rent-seeking?
    I'm just curious as to whether the laughter was audible or not.

  5. AlgerHiss   12 years ago

    What a sissified little douchebag this guy is ?an empty suit?.silly-assed high school pot head.

    1. fish   12 years ago

      Yes he is Alger...but other than those qualities he's fabulous....no?

    2. Snark Plissken   12 years ago

      Il Douche is the proper term, I believe.

  6. Almanian!   12 years ago

    A. Barton Hinkleheimerschmidt
    His name is my name, too!
    Whenever we go out
    people always shout,
    "There goes A. Barton Hinkleheimerschmidt!"
    LALALALALALALA....

    That's for RC Dean. It's been awhile. You're welcome.

    1. cavalier973   12 years ago

      It's DADADADADADADA

      *glares*

      1. Almanian!   12 years ago

        nuh uh

    2. R C Dean   12 years ago

      Why me?

      1. Snark Plissken   12 years ago

        Who used to do that? I'm thinking it was NutraSweet.

  7. cavalier973   12 years ago

    According to Newsweek's Evan Thomas, the president is "standing above the country. Above ? above the world. He's sort of God."

    When did he say that?

    1. Almanian!   12 years ago

      I think it was a year or two into his first term - too lazy to Google

      *returns to eating bon bons while lying on a bed of orphans*

    2. Hugh Akston   12 years ago

      HEAR THE GOSPEL OF THY LORD AND WEEP, MORTAL

      1. fish   12 years ago

        Evan Thomas is shreek like in his fellatial piety!

        1. Swiss Servator, referendiffic!   12 years ago

          "fellatial piety"

          That seems a goodly term, band name and such. Bravo.

      2. SQRLSY One   12 years ago

        Emperor O-Bummer ***IS*** Guv-Mint Almighty, who are we mortals to doubt?

  8. Rich   12 years ago

    "We are not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs out there."

    Of course, that *particular* "whole bunch of social programs" comprises private-sector and foreign programs.

    Continuing to study Obamaese ....

    1. Mainer2   12 years ago

      define "lavishly". He means that every penny is needed and spent wisely.

      Obamaese, indeed.

  9. Almanian!   12 years ago

    "Let me be clear. We eschew obfuscation."

    1. SQRLSY One   12 years ago

      You mean, in full, "We eschew the obfuscation engendered via the excessive utilization of superfluous articulations from pedantic morally superior organisms, amongst which we obviously exclude ourselves."

  10. John   12 years ago

    Has he said one truthful thing as President? The list of the times he told the truth about anything that mattered is pretty short if it exists at all.

    1. R C Dean   12 years ago

      I actually do think that at least one of the times that he admitted total ignorance of what was going on, he was telling the truth.

      So, there's that.

      1. John   12 years ago

        I am willing to believe that he had no idea that the healthcare website was going to be such a disaster. I am also willing to believe his staff thinks so little of him they never told him or involved in him anything that happened at Bengazi.

        So there is two.

        1. Rich   12 years ago

          I am also willing to believe his staff thinks so little of him they never told him

          Aside from that, they love and respect him.

          1. fish   12 years ago

            Aside from that, they love and respect him.

            Exactly....much like the citizens of Airstrip One venerated Big Brother.....he doesn't exist either

    2. Rasilio   12 years ago

      "He's pretty good at killing people"

      While it is probably not true in the way he meant it it is undeniably true

  11. Raston Bot   12 years ago

    Anyone know if Venezuela is winning the economic war it's waging against itself? I, for one, certainly hope that Venezuela proves victorious and defeats Venezuela!

    1. Smilin' Joe Fission   12 years ago

      As long as Venezuela puts up a good fight I will respect Venezuela, win or lose, for doing what they had to in the face of Venezuelan aggression.

      1. Sevo   12 years ago

        And we can start a toilet-tissue charity collection for them!

        1. WTF   12 years ago

          Sean Penn has agreed to chair it.

        2. Smilin' Joe Fission   12 years ago

          But who gets the double ply and who gets the single ply?

          1. WTF   12 years ago

            No one needs more than a single ply!

            1. Snark Plissken   12 years ago

              Can't the capitalist pigs spare a square?

    2. Doctor Whom   12 years ago

      My prog Facebook friends used to hold up Venezuela as a shining example. Now it's joined countries like North Korea and Zimbabwe on the list of countries whose existence it is a sin to acknowledge.

      1. robc   12 years ago

        Too bad joe isnt still around.

        1. SugarFree   12 years ago

          He'd just insist it's all OK because elections.

          1. Hillary's Clitdong   12 years ago

            Elections: None of us working alone is as dumb as most of us woring together.

            1. Hillary's Clitdong   12 years ago

              "working" - The squirrelz are now whoring themselves.

        2. Snark Plissken   12 years ago

          Or Sean Penn.

        3. Smilin' Joe Fission   12 years ago

          I'm still here man!

          1. robc   12 years ago

            There is only one "joe".

            1. Smilin' Joe Fission   12 years ago

              That guy probably never smiled, amirite??

      2. Hillary's Clitdong   12 years ago

        inflation running at an annual 54 percent and shortages of basic products

        Progress!

        1. SugarFree   12 years ago

          Inflation is just a right wingnut talk radio Fatbaugh myth.

          1. WTF   12 years ago

            That would have been perfect shreek if you had also added some irrelevant links.

            1. Doctor Whom   12 years ago

              In a more condescending tone, it could have been Tony.

        2. LynchPin1477   12 years ago

          Come to Venezuela! We're better than Zimbabwe!

          1. fish   12 years ago

            That'll look good on the travel commercials

          2. JWatts   12 years ago

            Racist!

  12. Doctor Whom   12 years ago

    According to Newsweek's Evan Thomas, the president is "standing above the country. Above ? above the world. He's sort of God."

    Set against such puffery we have the rather damning record of the past five years.

    When have mere facts ever had a chance against the faith of the true believers?

    1. Andrew S.   12 years ago

      Feels Reals

      1. Andrew S.   12 years ago

        There was supposed to be a greater than sign in there. What did you do with my greater than sign, squirrels?

      2. Andrew S.   12 years ago

        There was supposed to be a greater than sign in there. What did you do with my greater than sign, squirrels?

        1. Andrew S.   12 years ago

          And why did you double post that, squirrels? In retaliation for questioning you?

  13. Killaz   12 years ago

    Et in Arcadia ego

    The sad shepherds better bring a coat.

    1. Killaz   12 years ago

      This isn't the Iceland cop homocide thread. How did I get here? Not even interested in the above article. Sheesh.

      1. Killaz   12 years ago

        homicide

  14. Car Scanner   12 years ago

    He means that every penny is needed and spent wisely.

  15. parkerbce586   12 years ago

    until I looked at the draft that said $8761, I have faith ...that...my best friend had been actualie erning money part time at their laptop.. there mums best friend has been doing this 4 only about 8 months and resently repaid the morgage on there villa and purchased a brand new Aston Martin DB5. see here now
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  16. parkerbce586   12 years ago

    my neighbor's mother makes 63 BUCKS every hour on the laptop. She has been out of work for 7 months but last month her pay check was 15302 BUCKSjust working on the laptop for a few hours. Learn More Here
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