Memo 2 From The Office Of The President-Elect:

Rome Burns to the Tune of “Dueling Budgets”

by ContraSuggest (5/1/2011)

The Obama Administration and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) both released new budget proposals last month.  The administration’s proposal is a completely disingenuous affair, replete with fictional numbers, predicated on mythical assumptions; an ad hoc jumble of what the president thinks the public wants to hear (deficit reduction! tax the wealthy!), which amounts to the same old left-wing, demagogic nanny state horse crap that the statists have been ramming down our throats for the better part of the last 50 years.  Although Rep. Ryan’s budget is better by many degrees than the Administration’s, it still falls short of the obligatory Tea Party ideal. 

Look folks, this is simple: unless we take drastic measures now, we are looking at a great decline the likes of which has never been seen in America.  The magnitude of fiscal irresponsibility currently being exercised on the part of states, localities, and by the feds, is simply unprecedented in our history.  Now I understand that there are many out there in the field of public discourse, who are trying to convince us that our economic situation is not as dire as I’m claiming it to be.  So let’s put down the liberal crack pipe for a minute and take a hard look at the facts.   

The closest modern parallel, in terms of magnitude, to our current crisis would be the economic malaise of the 1970s.  By 1979, the American economy had all but collapsed under the weight of Keynesian demand-side management, and a feckless, weak-kneed foreign policy.  I’m old enough to remember the Stagflation (a combination of stagnant economic growth and skyrocketing inflation), and the indomitable, repeated “Oil Shocks,” that led to long lines at gas stations and the devaluation of the US dollar.  In New York State, nearly fifteen years of the tax-and-spend insanity of uber-liberal, Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller, caused a near-bankrupt state government in Albany to default on some of its bond obligations.  During the New York City fiscal crisis of the 1970s, Albany (its own coffers empty) was forced to step in to save Gotham from looming bankruptcy.            

Chillingly, what’s happening all over the country in terms of government financing today, is far worse and more widespread than the debacles of the 1970s, although caused by the same ideological poisons.  Washington is locked into a dizzying spiral of spending money that it doesn’t have, our yearly deficit hovers at a whopping $1.65 trillion, and the ten year cumulative debt is in the $14 trillion range!  Ever-growing entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) that currently consume about half the federal budget, are in fiscal ruin, and are growing exponentially with each passing year.  The Ryan proposal addresses Medicare and Medicaid, but not Social Security; Obama’s proposal doesn’t address any of them!  How can we take the president’s proposals seriously if he doesn’t take our vexing problems seriously, or ignores them all together?       

Many state governments have long been engaging in the same type of fiscal lunacy.  California for example, as recently as the late 1990s, was the booming technology capital of the world; now it has been wrecked by two decades of chronic overspending, over regulating, and a hyper-progressive tax code.  Because the state’s politicians and voters have repeatedly expressed a congenital refusal to curb out-of-control spending, they have resorted to the formerly unthinkable.  Early release for non-violent prison inmates, massive lay-offs of state and local government employees, closing of state parks, playgrounds and recreational centers, cancellation of parades, reducing library hours of operation, etc.; and despite these drastic measures, their debt figures are getting worse.  Liberals inside both political parties have tried to convince us for many years that these high levels of taxation and government spending would ensure the continuation of needed government services, while those of us who preached fiscal discipline were accused of throwing homeless children into the snow and destroying the environment.  The roaring liars of the left won that debate, and may very well win it again, despite the economic devastation that their policies have visited on us.  The chance of widespread financial default in shameless tax-and-spend states such as New Jersey, New York, California, and Illinois, is more likely now than it has been in an extremely long time (perhaps further back than the reach of our institutional memory).  Luckily, Governors like Republican Chris Christie in New Jersey, and Democrat Andrew Cuomo in New York, are forcing the kind of obligatory reforms and fiscal restraint necessary for the survival of their respective states.  The benighted, leftist Democrats in congress need to take a lesson from fellow Democrat Cuomo, before it’s too late.          

In all fairness to President Obama, he was dealt a crappy hand upon taking office; the country was embroiled in two wars, a deep recession was underway, brought about by a collapsing real estate market (caused largely by bad federal regulations on the private sector economy).  Mounting debt created by a spend-happy Republican president and Democratic congress, were stifling the country’s economy.  However, aside from breaking nearly every single campaign promise that he made, President Obama has supported or enacted the wrong policies at every turn, making the country’s woes infinitely worse.  He has done everything that he could have possibly done to worsen the situation.  Whether it’s been Cap and Trade, Cash for Clunkers, Obamacare, endless stimuli, or another military campaign, Obama has plunged us ever-deeper into crippling debt, and the promised turning has not come.    

I would be remiss if I did not point out the deleterious effect that the policies of the Federal Reserve have had on the value of the US dollar, which is the cornerstone of both the American and world economies.  It’s time for the US congress to conduct a full audit of the Fed, in an effort to render its workings more transparent to the American public.  What the hell is “quantitative easing” anyway, and why does the Fed operate more like Ben Bernanke’s private little fiefdom instead of a pseudo-government agency that is subject to oversight?  We deserve to know.    

Our legislators cannot continue to treat the American taxpayer like an ATM, or continue the equivalency of paying off maxed-out credit cards with other maxed-out credit cards.  Our legislators must implement structural reform of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on the federal level; and structural Medicaid, Education, and Pension reform in the various states.  If not, the likelihood of economic collapse is all too real. 

Unfortunately, with no viable Tea Party Republican presidential candidate on the horizon, and the  Obama machine’s demagogic class warfare rhetoric brainwashing a uniformed and apathetic public, his chances of reelection are looking better and better all the time.  We shouldn’t be surprised if a majority of American voters look past Obama’s failed policies, and the cardboard cutouts he’ll potentially run against, to pull the lever for him once again.  God help us all.