Gitmo Nation Update: Spend, Baby, Spend!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Spend, Baby, Spend!

Not long ago, President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a
commission that would report back to him with policy
recommendations on cutting the federal deficit.

And as great leaders throughout history have proved, the most
effective way to tend to any intergenerational crisis is to create
a bipartisan commission to study it—but only after midterm
elections.

You, the public, are only asked to suspend your disbelief and
accept that the president is deeply worried about the deficit, the
huge national debt, and the federal spending explosion. As a
candidate, after all, the president assured us that he would scour
the budget "line by line" for any wasteful spending, yet today
we've seen the national debt climb to $13 trillion, and federal
spending is nearly 25 percent of gross domestic product. Washington
likely will spend $1.56 trillion more than it took in last
year—putting the Bush administration to shame.

At the G-20 summit, in fact, for the first time in history, the
U.S. president is the one advocating that other nations hasten
their bankruptcy agendas, increase government debt, and strengthen
control economies by offering more "stimulus."

Hasn't the president heard? His own administration doesn't have
the nerve to refer to the trillion-dollar government/union
boondoggle as a "stimulus" anymore. Today the preferred White House
parlance is "emergency" bill.

Yet the audacity of hope dictates that the president turn the
tables on his critics and start kicking some serious tea party
butt. That's why we heard this from him: "Next year, when I start
presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some
of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt start
stepping up, because I'm calling their bluff."

Now, by "difficult choices," rest assured we're talking about a
bundle of tax increases—because no one in Washington right now will
significantly cut spending. Democrats claim that nothing can be
taken off the table in the budget fix. Which is good to know when
the discussion turns to capital gains cuts, corporate tax cuts, or
slashing entitlement programs and subsidies for those morally sound
industries the left loves.

Republicans, on the other hand, face a political dilemma, as
well. They are bluffing. Cutting funding for the National Endowment
for the Arts? The Department of Education? Senate salaries? Is that
going to do the trick? If the Republicans want to be credible on
the issue, they must do more than reverse ObamaCare, which is
improbable in the short term, anyway.

A recent Pew Research poll found that 23 percent—a growing
number—of Americans believe that the federal budget deficit is the
top concern facing the nation. If the opposition party—needing
redemption on this issue—can't offer a coherent, viable long-term
strategy to undo the damage done by reckless spending, it is going
to be doomed to remain in the minority for a long time.

David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the
author of Nanny State. Visit his website at www.DavidHarsanyi.com.