Archive for the ‘Obama Budgets’ Category
Washington: Definition of a Budget “Cut”
There are a few simple words in the English language that are universally understood.
In 1998, President Clinton, caught in the Lewinsky scandal, strained our imagination when he uttered this now infamous line: “It depends what the definition of ‘is’ is.” Is, is the 3rd person singular, present indicative of the verb, “be,” and no amount of presidential posturing can change that.
There is another simple little word that is almost universally misunderstood, at least as it is applied in the nation’s Capitol. It is the word “cut.” Unlike the word “is,” cut has many definitions. However, all of them are quite simple with one big exception.
The definition of cut that is fraught with complexities inside the Washington beltway is “to lower, reduce, diminish, or curtail.” Read the rest of this entry »
Getting the Country out of Debt (It’s not Rocket Science)
The country is teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Getting our fiscal house in order is not just an economic imperative. It’s a matter of national security.
We now have competing budgets offered by President Obama and House Republican Budget Chair Paul Ryan. When faced with all the numbers and the sheer size of the federal budget, the average citizen may be tempted to throw up his or her hands. Don’t despair! It’s not rocket science. Read the rest of this entry »
The dreaded 1995 bogeyman
Will there be a government shutdown? If Senate Democrats and President Obama refuse to cooperate with the GOP-led House of Representatives and begin the process of cutting the government down to size before we reach the national debt limit, it’s possible.
The Democrats are betting that Republicans will blink and they are using the last, and what they believe to be the best weapon in their arsenal, the 1995 bogeyman, to scare them into abandoning their principled stand.
This boogeyman is without form or substance but in the years that followed those infamous government shutdowns, it has been known to strike fear into the hearts of the most dedicated fiscal conservative representatives on Capitol Hill. Indeed, this creature has left many a congressman shaking in his or her boots or stilettoes. Read the rest of this entry »
Not Funny
A typical text from a 20 something on the Obama Budget would read, “OMG, LOL” That would, of course, assume that the sender did not come through our public school system and could do basic math.
After reviewing the high points of the president’s budget, any reasonable person would “laugh out loud.” It’s a joke! Not the kind that causes one to smile, but the “you can’t expect me to take this seriously” kind of joke.
The country is in big economic trouble and those who are paying attention are scared spitless. We are more than $14 trillion in debt. It’s the largest in the entire world and it is roughly 95 percent of our GDP. Last year, FY 2010, we paid $414 billion in interest on that debt, or about $1.13 billion a day.
Obama’s Christmas Stocking
Every Christmas, stockings are hung by the chimney with care, with the anticipation that each stocking owner will be properly rewarded for his or her behavior over the past year. What will President Barack Obama get this Christmas? If this citizen were Santa he would receive:
- A lump of coal for using our economy, which had begun to stabilize when he took office, as an excuse to pass a so-called $787 billion stimulus bill, which funded every big government program on the liberals’ wish list.
