Here's how the president summed up his economic priorities: "What I've said is, let's make long-term spending cuts; let's initiate long-term reforms; let's reduce our healthcare spending; let's make sure that we've got a pathway, a glide-path to fiscal responsibility, but at the same time, let's not underinvest in the things that we need to do right now to grow."
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]
This one really doesn't pass the smell test. If he had proposed "long-term spending cuts" instead of more deficit spending, perhaps the soaring national debt would not stand at a record $15 trillion, according to the Treasury Department, and Obama's one-term spending wouldn't have surpassed that of the Bush administration's two terms. If he wanted to "initiate long-term reforms," he would have endorsed the Simpson-Bowles plan. If he wanted to "reduce our healthcare spending," he would be leading the way on Medicare and Medicaid reform, which are two of the biggest drivers of the expanding federal budget. If he wanted to work together on a "glide-path to fiscal responsibility," he wouldn't have rejected the House Republican budget as "social Darwinism." And "let's not underinvest," he warns. Translation: let's not stop spending. It's really quite amazing.
"The private sector is doing fine." Those six words may become famous by fall, because they illustrate how out of touch the president is with American business. He's become a big government guy in a limited government world. The president has made it clear he cannot, or will not, do what needs to be done to turn our country around.
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