Deaf on debt:
Returning to old liberal
ideas, President Obama
ignores the American
people
Charles Krauthammer
Friday, January 28th 2011, 4:00 AM The November election sent a clear message to
Washington: less government, less debt, less
spending. President Obama certainly heard it, but
judging from his State of the Union address, he
doesn't believe a word of it.
The people say they want cuts? Sure they do - in the
abstract. But any party that actually dares carry them
out will be punished severely. On that, Obama
stakes his re-election.
No other conclusion can be drawn from a speech
that didn't even address the debt issue until 35
minutes in. And then what did he offer? A freeze on
domestic discretionary spending that he himself
admitted would affect a mere one-eighth of the
budget.
Obama seemed impressed, however, that it would
produce $400 billion in savings over 10 years.
That's an average of $40 billion a year. The deficit
for last year alone was more than 30 times as much.
And total federal spending was more than 85 times
that amount. A $40 billion annual savings for a
government that just racked up $3 trillion in new
debt over the last two years is deeply unserious. It's
spillage, a rounding error.
As for entitlements, which are where the real money
is, Obama said practically nothing. He is happy to
discuss, but if Republicans dare take anything from
granny, he shall be Horatius at the bridge.
This entire pantomime about debt reduction came
after the first half of a speech devoted to, yes, new
spending. One almost has to admire Obama's
defiance. His 2009 stimulus and budget-busting
health care reform are precisely what stirred the
popular revolt that delivered his November
shellacking. And yet he's back for more.
It's as if Obama is daring the voters - and the
Republicans - to prove they really want smaller
government. He's manning the barricades for
Obamacare and he's here with yet another spending
- excuse me, investment - spree. To face down
those overachieving Asians, Obama wants to sink
yet more money into yet more road and bridge
repair, more federally subsidized teachers - with a
bit of high-speed rail tossed in for style. That will
show the Chinese.
And of course, once again, there is the magic lure of
a green economy created by the brilliance of
Washington experts and politicians. This is to be
our "Sputnik moment," when the fear of the foreigner
spurs us to innovation and greatness of the kind
that yielded NASA and the moon landing.
Apart from the irony of this appeal being made by
the very President who has just killed NASA's
manned space program, there is the fact that for
three decades, since Jimmy Carter's synfuel fantasy,
Washington has poured billions of taxpayer dollars
down a rat hole in vain pursuit of economically
competitive renewable energy.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/01/28/2011-01-28_deaf_on_debt_returning_to_old_liberal_ideas_president_obama_ignores_the_american.html