Yes, Obama, There Is A Spending Problem

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 1/7/2013 | IBD Staff

[IBD editorial writer]

Deficits: Apparently, President Obama never got around to reading the final report of his own deficit commission. How else to explain his belief that federal spending isn't the cause of the nation's debt crisis?

That's apparently what Obama told House Speaker John Boehner during their recent "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

"At one point several weeks ago," Boehner told the Wall Street Journal, "the president said to me, 'We don't have a spending problem.'"

[snip]

When it comes to federal spending, Obama is like the alcoholic who says that the only drinking problem he has is when he can't get a drink.

[alloysteel]

The only way Bronco Bama would believe we have a spending problem, is that we were not spending ENOUGH. He is certainly doing his share to assure we continue to spend what we do not have.

A sane and truly concerned American President would be negotiating to bring this to at least a soft landing. Not to say the Bronco Bama is certifiably mentally troubled, but he does not have the interests of the United States at heart. In any other era, what he is doing would be declared to be treason, but none dare call it that. Worse, there are those who continue to convert to the mindset, even though it is against all custom and history, and follows no logical course.

“Won’t work” is no way to negotiate a way out of this impasse. Unwilling to put anything on the table himself, Bronco Bama simply continues to shoot down just about every recommendation for cutting government spending, except one - reducing the military. Jimmy Carter hollowed out the military, too, during his brief stay in office, and it is only that the US is actively engaged in Afghanistan, that there have not been spectacular cutbacks already in the regular Army, the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy. Instead, teams of Special Forces have been extensively deployed, as if this were the ticket to imposing US might upon the world. Then, in a curious act of perfidity, the movements of the various Special Forces are exposed to the world, almost guaranteeing impairment of their future ability to act on the missions they originally undertook.

[norwaypinesavage]

I'm a retired executive (their word, not mine) from a large US industrial company. I administered a budget for about a quarter of a century. During that quarter century, more than half the time my budget was either frozen, or went down. It was surprisingly easy to administer a declining budget: Freeze hiring, Identify and fund the most critical programs, reduce funding for the rest.

If you look at the gap in the chart from the article, simply freezing the spending for two years will completely eliminate the deficit. Any executive who can't accomplish that without even breaking a sweat isn't worth retaining as a potted plant. Are you listening, Mr. President.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

Stupidity is annoying but I am increasingly disturbed by the increase in Militant Stupidity coming from the left. These emboldened leftists are aggressively stupid, absolutely convinced that they are right and immune to facts, history, or just plain common sense. They are well schooled in spewing Rat talking points but have no capacity to intelligently discuss an issue. They believe in Hippy ecomonics where there is no supply and demand, profit is evil, whatever you need should be provided to you for free, and there is an endless pool of funds hoarded by “the rich”. These mutants seem to be multiplying rapidly and they VOTE. Welcome to post rational America.

[Gasshog]

You get it. When more sleepers awake to understand the true expectations of the Left I wonder will there still be a chance to correct things...its doubtful

[maica]

***Welcome to post rational America.***

What a succinct description of our sad situation!

I’m going to use this for my tagline.

[WaterWeWaitinFor]

Well, well....... I think that you both have terrific ideas, terrific ideals and simple solutions. But the GOP has allowed this to continue and they are part of “our” problem.

The left never gives up, is patient in getting their leftist socialism embedded in our society. Check out the “we're all winners” type of college graduates coming into the working arena with assorted worthless “social change” degrees thinking they will blast into the job market, have everyone love them and throw lots of money at them. When reality check hits them in the face, they realize that being a guy/gal serving coffee at the local Starbucks just isn't what they dreamed of. BWAAAAA... When we sent our two to college (totally paid for by them and us) we told them to find a line of studies where you can make good money. Oh Gee - that works! Both are successful now, working very hard and have no unrealistic expectations.

Don't you all love the reaction of the Dem low-information voter who now looks at his first 2013 paycheck and is shocked, I tell ya, just shocked. Sit back and laugh. The Won has NO use for them any more. bwaaaaa. Gotta love it just a little, don't you?

[WaterWeWaitinFor]

And of course you are totally correct about the deficit. An intelligent solution for irrational spending.

I have always been so disappointed in the GOP for not grabbing a microphone and merely listing the waste and fraud in our government spending problems, but it apparently will disclose the waste THEY voted for.

Disgusting isn’t it?

[Baynative]

Last night I witnessed proof that we are in a lot worse shape than many people realize. The show I saw was Scott Rasmussen's "What America Thinks". The guests were Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution and Stephen Moore of Wall Street Journal.

As they discussed last week's Fiscal Cliff soap opera they rambled on about numbers and hypothetical out comes, partisan positions and "revenues" v. spending. At one point there was a graph of poll results showing the 54% are blaming republicans and supporting the media's publicized need to raise taxes on the rich.

I don't know Isabel Sawhill, I've seen Stephen Moore quite a bit and thought him to be smart on the economy and I don't trust Rasmussen. What I noticed in all of them was a bubble mentality; they all live in and think in the bubble of beltway culture and insider cocktail chatter. Not one of them was capable of picking the blatantly obvious statistic out of all the voter polling they were analyzing and asking one simple question regarding democrats v. republicans -
"WHERE DO THESE PEOPLE WORK?"

Now that we all know that of those 54% (D) voters that support the Obama policies those who work do so primarily in government or union jobs (and the rest may not work at all) the answer about where we are headed is almost a moot point.

The country is going to have to hit rock bottom and either collapse altogether or rebuild from there and those who loved and supported the America that was the beacon of hope for the world should take the time to mentally record the people they know who support our impending downfall and be ready to hold them accountable if the opportunity ever presents itself.

[Vaduz]

He’s a spendaholic it’s caused by being a socialist he and his party need to take the cure,realty.

[Wolfie]

The problem is any freeze is defined as a cut. Hell, any reduction in planned increase is considered a cut. Witness Defense spending.

[combat_boots]

“for their taking usury, which was prohibited for them, and because of their consuming people’s wealth under false pretense, a painful punishment was prepared for them. The Quran requires their “abasement and poverty” in the form of the poll tax jizya.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_antisemitism