Imagine that your family’s budget was so out of whack that for every dollar you spent, you had to borrow 45 cents. Well, that’s what’s happening in Washington right now. Congress and the Obama Administration are so outspending what we have, that for every dollar spent, they’re adding another 45 cents to our national debt. The 45 cents is borrowed (much of it from our good friends, the Chinese who always have our best interests at heart). Despite Obama happy talk at the State of the Union Address to do something about the out-of-control spending, Obama’s budget for the next year, which was released just yesterday, is even worse than many feared. It calls for $3.8 trillion in spending, and since it projects only $2.2 trillion coming in, that means a staggering $1.6 trillion will be added to our children and our grandchildren’s debt burden. That’s by far the worst year ever.
President Obama gives lip service to a spending freeze, which of course doesn’t kick in until next year. And, oh by the way, it amounts to less than one tenth of 1% of the spending, and probably won’t happen anyway. President Obama also calls for another economic stimulus bill. (The last one worked so well.)
If you really want a perfect example of the mindset prevailing in Washington nowadays, you need look no further than what the number three Democrat in the House said earlier this week. James Clyburn, the Democratic Whip, said (with a straight face) that “we must spend our way out of this recession.” He really said that! This is the same guy who came to Cincinnati last campaign and raised thousands of dollars for Candidate Steve Driehaus, and has already contributed $14,000 to Congressman Steve Driehaus this election cycle. Not surprisingly, Driehaus has been voting with the liberal Democratic leadership (Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn) virtually every time. No wonder a Washington political news journal Politico called Driehaus a “reliable backer of party leadership.”
One of the more interesting (and ironic) things that President Obama said when he announced his budget this week was that Washington could no longer afford to spend money “as if it were monopoly money.” (Then he proceeded to offer a budget that spent our money as if it were monopoly money.) It reminded me a lot of when he said “what I am not doing, what I have no interest in doing , is running GM.” (Then he proceeded to takeover GM and Chrysler.) It’s almost as if he forgets that what he says is being recorded, and we might actually go back and compare what he says with what he does.
One particularly wasteful item in the President’s budget that jumped out at me was $237 million to be spent on a prison in Obama’s home state of Illinois, intended to house the dangerous terrorists now being safely kept away from us at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Why we’d even consider bringing them here and housing them on U.S. soil, with all the inherent risks involved (and the added expense) is just nuts. And as I’ve been saying from the start, it’s just lunacy to risk that the virulent hatred these terrorists carry in their souls be allowed to spread to other inmates in our U.S. prison system.
In conclusion, Congress is now considering the most irresponsible budget – since the one they passed last year. It spends too much, raises taxes, and digs us all deeper and deeper into debt. It’s awful. Unfortunately, it’s what we’ve come to expect from our current leadership in Washington. It’s time for a change.