OK. So now I’m not confused anymore.
Now I know Obama is working from a master plan. Recently I’ve come to the conclusion that the administration does know the stimulus math at least.
I’ve always assumed that they couldn’t count. It was the only way I figured unemployment got away from them. But over the last few months, I’ve started to re-think that assumption.
I was confused because the administration presented a budget that called for nearly $4 trillion in spending and a $1.6 trillion deficit in February, but now in July they’re looking to cut spending northward of $4 trillion while raising taxes by $1 trillion.
It didn’t add up to me
They were either not serious then when they presented the budget or they’re not serious now about deficit reduction.
In the two years they controlled Congress, the administration could have pushed for a larger stimulus program, but now they complain that they just didn’t have enough money in the $792 billion stimulus that they squandered.
They either weren’t serious then when they passed the stimulus or they aren’t serious now.
They gave the states money for temporary expansion of entitlement and public employees and then seemed confused about why the money is running out.
“This is part of the problem,” said Obama in an ironic, yet unintended description of himself, “where folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections or short-term political gain when we actually are in position to do something hard.”
That sounded to me kind of like the drug dealer telling his junkies to clean up their act.
But now that I’ve done the math, it makes sense to me. It’s because while Obama talks about investment what he’s really interested in is addiction. And tax increases.
We are at a financial crossroads because Mr. Obama, as the Wall Street Journal likes to call him, passed legislation that did not address in a serious way the problems that face our economy. Instead, he added to it. Now he’s looking for a way to subtract from it and distract from it
He passed a fiscal stimulus measure that was a fiscal disaster in that it didn’t stimulate the economy, nor did it create any jobs. It only got us further hooked on the drug Washington wants to feed us, tax increases.
He spent $56 billion on temporary funding for teachers and other state and municipal employees, instead demanding that individual districts get their own fiscal house in order. He spent $98 billion on repaving roads and the failed attempt at high speed rail- he calls that infrastructure development. He spent close to a billion on subsidizing Amtrak and $3 billion on helping people buy new cars. He provided $4.5 billion in loan guarantees to a publicly-traded company that just happens to have contributed a significant amount to Democrats. He spent $16 billion on student loans that can’t be repaid.
None of those “investments” make the economy self-sustaining. But Obama figured out how to make it all add up.
That’s why Obama’s talking about having to raise taxes by $792 billion, plus interest to make it an even trillion dollars more or less ($792 billion stimulus plus 2.9 percent interest from the US Treasury over ten years comes out to $913 billion).
I always thought that raising taxes was a last resort for a candidate who was trying to win reelection.
I guess that rule doesn’t count if you’ve already squandered the money, plus interest.
That adds up.