There you go. And no ... that's not Obama's new budget. That's Obama's projection for the budget DEFICIT this year! That's money we don't have. That's money we're going to have to borrow. That's money our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay back. Or ... .that's debt our country will eventually try to discharge in bankruptcy.
Let me try to put that $1.6 trillion in perspective. We're going on a spending spree. Let's see ..... how much do we want to spend an hour? Does $100,000 an hour work for you? $100,000 an hour 24 hours a day 365 days a year ... and we're going to keep on spending at $100K an hour until we've spent the entire $1.6 trillion.
The first day goes by. How much have we spent? That one's easy. We've spent $2,400,000. We now have the house of our dreams, a few tremendous cars and some nice bling.
The first year goes by. How much have we spent? Try $876,000,000. That's $876 million dollars. Is there anything else you could possibly want? I'm thinking you're starting to give money away to complete strangers by now.
You're well on your way to spending $1,600,000,000. But wait! Look at that figure above! There's some extra zeros there. That $1,600,000,000 you're edging up on is in billions, not trillions. You will reach that spending level in 564 days. That's 564 days of spending $100,000 an hour 24/7.
So ... let's move in on that $1.6 trillion dollar figure. It took you 564 days to knock off your first $1.6 billion ... so how much to spend this year's deficit? How about 666,490? Yup ... that's the figure. That's how long it takes you to spend this year's deficit at $100,000 an hour. If you want that figure to sound a bit more reasonable ... try 1,826 years.
That's not the worse of it. This is just one year's deficit. The Obama budget projects $8 trillion in deficits over the next ten years. How long would it take for our $100,000/hr spending spree to take care of that? Try 9,132 years.
The cold, hard truth here is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have the courage to really address this hideous budget problem right now. On the one hand we have Obama suggesting even MORE spending increases, and on the other hand we have Republicans playing games with the people by floating phony spending-cut numbers out there. Don't tell us how much you're going to cut from the Obama budget proposals for last year! Don't tell us how much you're going to cut from projected future spending increases. Tell us how much you're going to cut from current spending levels! That's the ONLY figure out there that means anything.
And something else ... and this is for both sides. Grow some stones and start to address entitlement spending. Both sides are gutless here. Their inattention to reigning in entitlements is all the proof you need that their main concern is not budget cutting or attaining some sense of economic sanity in this country ... their main concern is getting reelected. They love their positions of power and prestige ... they love these positions of power so much that they will consciously ignore - even jeopardize - the future of this country rather than put those positions in jeopardy.
Let's say something about the Gimme Generation before we move on here. I'm talking about seniors ... the wealthiest segment of our population. These people are consistent voters ... and the politicians realize this. The politicians also realize that, by and large, these seniors are going to vote their pockets and purses. If you dare to take any entitlements away from them - no matter whether they need the money or not - they're going to mobilize against you. If you think that politicians are ignoring future generations, they have nothing on our senior citizens. The loudest "screw you, you're on your own" shout-out to future generations is actually coming from the Social Security and Medicare crowd.
The number one item on the budget agenda? Hands down ... the Department of Education. It accomplishes absolutely nothing while spending nearly $100 billion a year. Get rid of it.
So .... let the games begin. OK, so I'm rambling a bit. This is stream-of-consciousness stuff folks. Bear with me. Some say that Obama's budget is going to be the beginning of an "epic" budget showdown. We can expect to see an estimated deficit cut of $1.1 trillion per year over the next ten years. That gives us our $8 trillion over the next decade. Also, the Obama administration will not reach its self-imposed short-term goal of reducing deficits to 3% of our GDP by 2015. In fact, Republican Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan says that Obama's plan would still continue to raise our national debt. This could, again, be one of those scenarios where Obama will make cuts based on future spending and somehow claim this to be a fiscal feat. For example, one report says, "While Obama would save money primarily through a five-year freeze in domestic spending, Republicans are calling for cuts in those programs, starting immediately." So Obama's idea of spending cuts is to freeze spending at the current level and be revered as a deficit hawk for not increasing spending!
So besides freezing spending, how else does Obama plan to cut spending? Apparently other programs will be on the chopping block, including low-income heating assistance programs and community development block grants ... programs that liberals love, so we will see how many Democrats are willing to put up that fight. After all, this is how Democrats continue to get votes - by promising these programs to the moocher class. Are these the types of efforts that will net us some serious savings? Prolly not. Other targets include the Pentagon, which Obama is suggesting $78 billion in savings ... generally a part of the budget that never sees spending cuts from either party.
But the other one-third of these "savings" in Obama's budget will come in the form of tax increases. This is where Republicans in the House slam on the breaks. Tax increases of any form (including closing tax loopholes) is probably going to be dead on arrival. Speaking of Republicans, they unveiled their own measure on Friday that would get rid of $5 billion from the Education Department. While lacking the gonads to get rid of it altogether, it's a start.
But something else you will notice about Obama's budget .... It doesn't tackle any of the big three: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Until we are willing to address these issues, nobody can claim the title of "deficit hawk" or consider themselves to be concerned about our fiscal situation. I am sick of the concern and ready for action.
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