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Does Anyone Else Find It Truly Bizarre...

...that with Barack Obama's signature barely dry on the largest single deficit spending measure in world history that he now proclaims he will "halve" the federal deficit in 4 years?

Economist Jeffrey Miron from that right-wing, conservative, wingnut talking points bastion Harvard University said he suspects the proposal to halve the $1.3 trillion deficit is "wildly optimistic."

(To say the least, Professor Miron. Obama-Reid-Pelosi are just getting warmed up with their forcible statist redistribution of economic resources in America).

I guess for those of the twisted ideology that can justify almost-instantaneously escalating deficit spending beyond what almost any human being can even conceive, to then spin right around and state the intention of "halving" this very same deficit probably seems rational and believable.

Nevertheless, no need to let reality get in the way of phony media posturing and staged dog-and-pony events posing as real action.

Modeling himself after the Democrat party's long-standing playbook (see : Minner, Ruth Ann, Gov.), Obama is convening a "study group/task force/commission", or "summit" as it is being touted, so he can at least pretend he now gives a shit about "fiscal responsibility".

Mind you, once more, Obama just blew the doors off the national debt, to the tune of $1.3 trillion for just this year, on top of the existing $10,000,000,000,000.00 national debt.

Not 30 days into office Obama already walked the walk of epic fiscal irresponsibility, taking our country over the cliff with him.

Now he wants to talk a bunch of talk about being measured or responsible or attentive to deficit spending.

He can gather all the yammering heads and policy sycophants he wants for a deficit focus group and it means a tinker's goddamn really.

Like all of Obama's phony, now-shattered campaign rhetoric that misled so many to believe he would be different....that he would do the right thing....it is all just talk.

The more I see, the more it seems to me Obama has mastered spending like a drunken George Bush and spinning like a caffeinated Bill Cinton on a sugar high.

Change indeed.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Tyler, easy there. I think it will work. In fact, despite my dire circumstances, I happen to have a quarter in my pocket that I will gladly give to the cause! That's one whole quarter closer to the goal! :roll: (if I can't do emoticons here, that was the command to do eye-roll)

When I first heard this yesterday, I couldn't help but to think rather pessimistically over his optimisitic view. That's the lousy shred of GOPness I still have in me! ;-)
Tyler Nixon said…
Don't worry about others phony bitching that we are decrying optimism, Smitty. To me it's about exposing the cynicism behind proclaiming that you will "halve" a deficit that you just tripled, not days ago.

To me it's the equivalent of "I only intend to rob 2 banks/year over coming years instead of the 4 I just plundered in 10 hours."

Whooopdeedoo!
Anonymous said…
All this ranting from Tyler, and he hasn't even heard the plan yet!

And no, there are no banks that have been plundered yet. Their behavior has put them into the need for more capital in order to operate as a bank to make loans.

It has already been leaked that Obama plans to cut back on defense spending, revise entitlements somehow, and tax the higher earning individuals more.

I am expecting him to extend the payroll tax income limit, let the Bush tax cut lapse next year, raise the top marginal tax rate, raise taxes on dividends and capital gains, and lower taxes on corporations.

On Social Security benefits, I expect him to raise the age of eligibility and impose means testing for benefit payments. On Medicare, I am expecting means testing on those benefits as well.

All this will help you, Tyler!

You could call the above my wish list.

Let us see what happens.

All that said, I am as well very surprised, and wonder myself if Obama's goal for reducing the deficit that much that quickly is remotely possible.

Perry Hood

PS: I wish the R&R Act were actually bigger, with more investment spending on infrastructure, education infrastructure, and medical streamlining, focusing on more job creation and the social benefits derived from these projects, using the FDR model, and recognizing that we are not even close to the debt as a % of GDP figure at the end of WWII, from which we recovered quickly and nicely.
Perry,
It amazes me that you can chide Tyler because the President has not laid out his plan yet, and then proceed with great confidence to tell us what the plan is. You cannot have it both ways.

Moreover, your version of the plan is full of truly questionable ideas

1) Obama has told the Pentagon to cut back 10% on its base budget, but that's meaningless Perry due to the fact that ongoing combat operations are not paid out of the base budget. Costs in Iraq show no signs of decreasing, and costs in Afghanistan will triple or quadruple over the next 3-5 years based on the administration's own stats. Cuts in defense spending are a myth.

2) "Revise entitlements somehow"--there's a gem that means absolutely nothing.

3) "tax the higher earning individuals more"--here's the thing you missed, Perry--repeal the Bush tax cuts, raise the marginal rates, increase capital gains taxes, and all your wish lists, and you know what? You are going to gain about 500-600 Billion short term for the Treasury. We were already running a deficit, and have spent about 2 Trillion in stimulus/bail-out since October. Not gonna cover the bills, Perry, and your capital gains increases will hurt virtually every pension plan in the country.

4) You expect him to lower taxes on corporations? Got a source?

5) On Social Security, how many more years would you like me to keep working, and why should we means test a benefit I'm supposed to get as an American citizen? Strangely, I'd expect him not to means test SSI, but to extend the SSI tax bracket up through, say, the first $250K of earnings. That would be consistent with what his advisors like Aaron Goolsbe have been suggesting. Again, where's your source?

6) Means-testing Medicare? In other words, you want universal health care except for citizens who make too much money. Again, President Obama has never suggested in any public forum that he wants to do this.

The difficulty here, Perry, is that you write all these things down in a chiding tone, as you had sources and as if your opinions were those of the administration. They aren't. It is your wish list, and you obviously haven't done research beyond talking points to examine the consequences.

As I have said before, you're always welcome here, and certainly welcome to challenge anything you read, but please do so with something more substantial....

(And if you want sources for what I've said regarding costs in Afghanistan and Iraq, just search those key words in the search function.)
Oh, and Perry, your fantasy about recovering from World War Two as a parallel example to today is just that. See

http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2009/02/reason-why-paul-krugman-is-not.html
Anonymous said…
Steve, you misunderstand. I have no source for the President's plan -- what I wrote is all just my guess. It is what I expect. I could be wrong. Save your critique for Obama's plan, when we hear it.

So your perception of my "chiding tone", except for that aimed at Tyler, is incorrect, Steve.

Talk about a chiding tone, check out Tyler's tone in his recent posts on this stimulus issue!

Tyler deserves to be chided, in my view, for criticizing a plan that he has not seen.

Now I'll check out your link refuting my citation of the FDR model.

Perry Hood

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