"We Don't Have a Spending Problem!" Says Obama

It would appear that my self-declared mission to save common sense has failed—and failed miserably.  I typically expect asinine, self-serving, and cynical decisions out of congress and the president, but it would seem that this is in line with what the statist ideologues and low-information voters in this country want too. 

Nobody is taking our nation’s fiscal situation seriously.  President Obama repeatedly decried during his presidential campaign the need for a “balanced approach” as far as spending cuts and raising revenue in order to put our financial house back in order.  After having won reelection, evidently that balanced approach as recommended by his own Bowles-Simpson committee of $3 in spending cuts to every $1 in revenue increases is now null and void.  Obama has redefined a “balanced approach” to mean tax increases only, so it seems.

Newly re-elected Speaker of the House John Boehner stated in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal that in his meeting with Obama it was apparent that Obama was utterly unwilling to cut a single dollar of federal spending.  Indeed, Boehner reports Obama as telling him, “We don’t have a spending problem.”  Wow!  So either Obama was being disingenuous during the campaign when he acknowledged that there was a spending problem, hence the need for a balanced approach, or he flat out doesn’t care about the impending fiscal collapse that will indeed come if we continue such reckless spending.  Frankly, I suspect both are true.  Already our national debt of over $16 trillion exceeds our entire gross domestic product.  It is unsustainable.

Speaker Boehner continued that President Obama asserts and maintains that the federal deficit is not due to governmental overspending but rather by a “health-care problem.”   “They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system.” Boehner told Obama, “Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with Obamacare. But, Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem.” Obama eventually replied, “I’m getting tired of hearing you say that.”

Obama may be tired of hearing Boehner talk about a spending problem, particularly when Obama has been re-elected on the basis of ignoring government spending. Nonetheless, America does have a spending problem, which Obama is steadfastly ignoring. “He’s so ideological himself,” Boehner explained, “and he’s unwilling to take on the left of his own party.” That’s why Obama refused to raise the retirement age for Medicare after agreeing to it. “He admitted in meetings that he couldn’t sell things to his own members,” said Boehner. “But he didn’t even want to try … We could never get him to step up.”

So we ended up raising taxes in the recent fiscal cliff deal.  Never mind that tax receipts rose(after tax-rate cuts) from $1.9 billion in 2003 to $2.3 billion in 2008, the year the recession started.  And did congress use that increase in revenue to close the gap in our budget’s deficit spending?  Nope.  In fact the deficit more than doubled.

Obama knows the ramifications of tax increases during tough economic times.  Indeed, in a MSNBC interview with Chuck Todd in August 2009, Obama said that "normally you don't raise taxes in a recession, which is why we haven't."  Todd had asked Obama a question from Elkhart, Indiana resident Scott Ferguson who wanted Obama to explain why raising taxes in a recession could be good for the economy. Obama answered that it could not be good for the economy, saying it was just good economics not to raise taxes in a recession.  “First of all, he’s [Ferguson] right. Normally, you don’t raise taxes in a recession, which is why we haven’t and why we’ve instead cut taxes. So I guess what I’d say to Scott is – his economics are right. You don’t raise taxes in a recession. We haven’t raised taxes in a recession,” Obama said.  And while we are not technically in a recession by definition right now, we are veering towards it, and the recent deal to raise taxes will likely steer us right back into that ditch.

President Obama further told Speaker Boehner that Obamacare would essentially fix the health care problems, so government spending was no longer going to be an issue.  Truly this man is delusional.

So what we have is an economy that is ultimately headed for financial collapse.  The president knows this and during his reelection campaign states that a balanced approach of spending cuts and revenue increases must be employed to deal with the situation quickly.  He further realizes based on his past statements that raising taxes during a recession is not the way to go about doing this.  After being reelected, Obama now states there is no spending problem and ultimately raises taxes.  And the people and sycophantic statist media continue to think he is a wonderful leader with our best interests truly at heart.  Yep, common sense is dead.