Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, National Security | Tags: Adding $8.7 Trillion to the Debt, Ideas Fixed in Concrete, No Room for Compromise
The Obama administration released the budget this morning, for fiscal year 2012. Kevin Hassett, senior fellow, and Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute summed it up nicely:
You can probably count on one hand the number of Americans who think the level of near-term spending in the last CBO outlook was too low, and this budget reveals that all of them apparently work in the White House.
Kevin Hassett says that the budget increase signals that the President has decided to try to push the Republicans towards a high-drama showdown on spending. He clearly thinks he can win such a showdown. The latest Gallup survey indicates the disapproval rate on the budget at 68% and the disapproval rate of the president’s management of the economy at 60%. That is high.
The president’s message — All is well. Let’s spend more on solar panels and high-speed rail. Over the next decade, this budget would add another $8.7 trillion to the national debt and take the national debt as a share of the economy to 77%. The White House is assuming a decade of steady growth with no recessions. This year’s total spending is $3.73 trillion — 25 percent of GDP.
Lots of battles ahead. The president has not changed his ideas at all since January 2009. He has learned nothing. He has not heard or understood anything said by the American people. He has heard nothing that scientists, engineers and the experience of other countries cite with solar panels, wind power or high-speed rail. European countries are shutting down their experiments as fast as they can. Despite the experience of every European country, Obama still thinks there will be scads of green jobs, a fact belied by our own experience.
The president’s own deficit commission recommended reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years — to avoid financial catastrophe. Nevermind. Richard Epstein who knows him from the University of Chicago and others have said the Obama’s ideas are “set in concrete,” he just doesn’t change them.
Obama is using fake numbers to suggest that he is being fiscally responsible, and trying to set a trap for Republicans so that when they make cuts in the budget he can portray them as mean-spirited and irresponsible. The Center for American Progress (George Soros outfit) has probably already written the script.
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