Political Consultant

Here is another example of a President entirely unserious about the process of actually governing this country of ours. He would rather campaign, as he did with the stimulus and the health care bill, than do the work of governing. There isn’t enough pizazz or media coverage of taking your job seriously, as compared to making speeches and raising money.

So President Obama submits a budget that doesn’t take serious the true issues of what we are dealing with, which is a totally unavoidable debt crisis fueled by spending binges and a bad economy. This president was dropped in a perfect storm of declining revenues and unsustainable spending, and decided to just make things worse.

Jake Tapper, the best WH media correspondent in my opinion, penned a great piece about Pres Obama’s broken promise on balancing, or at least even taking seriously the spending deficit we have on our hands -

“This is big,” wrote White House director of new media Macon Phillips in a February 23, 2009 blog post , ”the President today promised that by the end of his first term, he will cut in half the massive federal deficit we’ve inherited. And we’ll do it in a new way: honestly and candidly.”

Indeed, President Obama did make that promise that day, saying , “today I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. This will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we’ve long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay – and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control.”

The 2013 budget the president submitted today does not come close to meeting this promise of being reduced to $650 billion for fiscal year 2013.

Congressman Paul Ryan, of course, has some details for you-

“President Obama’s irresponsible budget is a recipe for a debt crisis and the decline of America. His refusal to honestly confront our nation’s most pressing challenges does real harm to the economic security of millions of American families. The $1.9 trillion tax increase proposed in his budget will make it harder for businesses to create jobs and for workers to spur economic growth.

“This budget does nothing to prevent the bankruptcy of critical programs, threatening the health and retirement security of current and future seniors. Worse, it continues the President’s policy of letting an unaccountable board of bureaucrats cut Medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for seniors.  The broken promises and recycled gimmicks contained in this budget have dramatically widened this President’s growing credibility deficit.

“Our families, seniors, children and grandchildren deserve better than this reckless budget and this dismal failure of leadership. As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I will continue to work with my colleagues – from both parties where possible – to advance bold solutions that lift our crushing burden of debt and ensure a future of opportunity, growth and prosperity.”

Key facts from the President’s budget:

• Spends Too Much:
  • $47 trillion of government spending over the next decade
  • Proposes a net increase over current spending projections
• Taxes Too Much:
  • $1.9 trillion in new taxes
  • Raises taxes, not to pay down the debt, but to fuel more government spending
• Borrows Too Much:
  • Four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits; no plan to reduce the debt
  • Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion
• Budget Gimmicks & Broken Promises
  • Overstates new deficit reduction by taking credit for savings already enacted
  • Exploits discredited budget gimmick by “not spending” nearly $1 trillion that was never going to be spent