Kevin Colby: News, culture, political blog

An article from Taxpayers for Common Sense that I just had to post in its entirety:

In his address to Congress, President Obama pledged to cut the annual budget deficit in half by the end of his term.  The problem is, this goal would keep deficit levels higher than the record deficits we have seen over the last eight years.

The bottom line is we have to do better. The largest budget deficit during the Bush presidency was $454 billion in 2008. At the time, that was a record. Everyone knows that record will be smashed to bits with the deficit estimated (pdf) to exceed $1.7 trillion in 2009. Right on the heels of that is a predicted deficit of $1.2 trillion in 2010.

We understand the argument that the country is in a deep recession, committing unprecedented funds to a bailout of the financial system and to stimulate the economy, so there is a need to carry large deficits in the short term. But, the budget the Administration released predicts the economic recovery starting in 2010, thus deficit reductions should and can be more aggressive before the end of the Presidential term in 2013.

Let’s be clear—the recent go-go spending years put the country in a deep fiscal hole. During President Bush’s two terms the debt nearly doubled, from $5.6 trillion to $10.6 trillion. The idea that there are no problems with running large budget deficits in an economic boom is intellectually bankrupt.  We should have been saving for lean times in recent years, but we didn’t.

Unfortunately, the proposed budget doesn’t go far enough in reversing the bad habits of recent years. It’s not just that halving the budget deficit by 2012 is an underwhelming goal, it’s that the Administration is betting on significant deficit spending as the right economic strategy even after they predict strong economic growth after 2009. The predicted annual deficits through 2019 all exceed half a trillion dollars, piling nearly $7 trillion on top of the debt over the next ten years.

Budget documents are largely political statements, and even the most honest budgets will be imprecise, based at least in part on policy wish lists. The good news is that the Administration’s proposed budget does away with some budgetary gimmicks. There is a return to 10 year budget predictions (rather than only five years) and the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are finally being included. We welcome these changes to add more clarity to the budget.

But there are still a lot of smoke and mirrors. Like budgets of past administrations, the underlying projections rely on unspecified and unsubstantiated savings from eliminating waste, and counts on future receipts from uncertain programs like a controversial cap and trade proposal to deal with climate change.

When the budget was released, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag argued that Medicare and health care were ticking time bombs that the country had to deal with or else they would break the budget. We don’t disagree. But budgets are about priorities and we have to fiscally walk and chew gum at the same time – make the tough spending and revenue decisions to deal with the deficit and Medicare at the same time. Otherwise, we are crippling the country’s economic future.

Some interesting articles by Neal Boortz:

The Cramdown Bill

This week we are going to see this “cramdown” bill come up for debate. We are probably talking Thursday. But this is the bill that would allow judges to erase or reduce the principal amount of a mortgage for borrowers who file for bankruptcy. In other words … you buy a house for $225,000. You borrow $200,000 from a third party (individual, bank, mortgage lender .. whatever) to give to the person who sold you the house, along with $25,000 of your own. The third party lender takes a security interest in your home to cover any losses in case you fail to pay them back. Then you go deadbeat and file bankruptcy. The judge then rules that you don’t have to pay all of the $200,000 you borrowed from the third party back … and what’s more, the third party cannot rely on their security interest in your home to make themselves whole. Pretty nifty, huh?  Read the full story.

John Kerry Eyes “Extravagence”

It was only a matter of time before we got to this point. And it took Northern Trust Corporation to do it. That is the evil corporation that has sent John Kerry on a mission to make sure that he is seen as a watchdog for the taxpayer!  Read the full story.

Government Waste And Abuse

It seems like every day I read countless stories about government’s inability to do anything with efficiency or common sense. And it is your tax dollars that pay the price. So now, for your enjoyment, I have a few examples that I have gathered just from the last day.  Read the full story.

A Four Trillion Dollar Federal Budget

That’s the word. Obama is going to introduce a $4,000,000,000,000 federal budget for consideration by his myrmidons in the Congress. How nice. Are you starting to understand that this narcissistic menace is just as dangerous as we told you he was going to be?  Read the full story.

First To Go

OK, sure …sometimes I might go a bit far on the air just to elicit a response. This wasn’t one of those times. I’m talking about yesterday, when I was discussing the ramifications of Obama’s extremely popular tax increases on the evil, disgusting rich. Sixty-four percent of the businesses, companies, corporations, partnerships … call them what you will … that actually hire people in this country are categorized as small businesses. These are businesses that report their incomes on personal tax returns. Personal returns … not corporate returns. Are you following the numbers here? Sixty-four percent of job providers are small businesses and they employ well over 70% of all people with jobs. What’s more these small businesses are creating 80% of all of our economy’s new jobs. Now .. the kicker … hopefully you already know this. These small business owners are the very targets of Obama’s tax increases.  Read the full story.

An interesting article from Taxpayers for Common Sense:

Congress has been pretty busy recently. In the last six months, they have run for reelection and have spent at least $1.5 trillion attempting to reverse our nation’s economic decline. After they get back from this week’s recess, they are poised to finally finish a massive spending bill left over from last year.

Fresh off of passing one of the largest, most expensive bills in history, the House next week will take up a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. The legislation combines the nine remaining spending bills for fiscal 2009 that the Congress punted on before the election. These spending bills are necessary to keep the lights on and the government running through next year.  Read the full story.

Some interesting articles to read: