If Only Peter Could Pay Paul...

The Obama Administration has proposed a budget of $3.6 trillion for FY 2010 which starts October 1, 2009. It is $1.84 trillion more than the government will take in from all sources.

The numbers are so large it is difficult for ordinary citizens to comprehend them, but almost every citizen worries about where the numbers might take us. Most of us see the deficit numbers piling up and worry that inflation will likely be used to pay for most of the spending we are doing today.

$3.6 trillion.

It is enough to take your breath away no matter your political leanings. Democrats will tell you it is a lot of money and it is necessary to (1) meet the demand for government programs and services from the people (everything from defending the shores to making sure beef is safe to eat), (2) restore some semblance of normalcy to the economy (stabilize the banks, secure the insuring entities), and (3) invest in our future in ways only government can. I repeat: …in ways only government can.

In short, there is a role for government in our lives. Dismiss any who say we need less government because it is too late. What we need, what we ask for, what we demand cannot be done with less government. If you know someone who believes otherwise, tell them to “get real.”

$3.6 trillion.

That IS a lot of money. Surely, we don’t need all of it. Surely, there is waste we can cut out and balance our federal budget. Why can’t we just cut those crazy programs at universities that do useless research like the one studying the sex lives of Australian slimy toads? When someone comes up and starts talking about such, I hope you will tell them, as politely as you can, to “please stop.” Such conversations, while they may feel good to the one complaining, do not reflect even a basic understanding of where we are….or, more importantly, where we are going.

Here’s where we are: Fully 65 percent of the federal budget is COMMITTED to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Interest on the National Debt, and Defense of the nation. That’s two of every three dollars – gone. Can’t be touched. You wouldn’t want to cut a dollar from any if you had the responsibility. Obama does have the responsibility and he was able to cut only $17 billion from the Pentagon’s budget for next year. He cut the entire F-22 Raptor program and other major line items but only cut $17 billion from the DOD budget.

OK, OK… so, two of three dollars are committed; what about the remaining dollar?

That last dollar supports every agency and department in the Executive and Judicial branches of government as well as a tiny amount for the Legislative branch. That last dollar goes to Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Justice, Labor, State, Energy, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, NASA, Veterans, Treasury, and Congress.

The deficit for the coming year will be around $1.84 trillion, according to a new projection released by the White House today, and that’s more than half of the $3.6 trillion budget proposed.

So, what’s a responsible government to do? It can slow down the rate of growth in entitlement programs, for one thing. It only takes political will. That means you and I have to give our elected officials the freedom to address these issues responsibly without threatening them with dismissal at the next election. It also means we have to give government the freedom to do some risk taking on our behalf, as the Obama Administration is attempting to do by investing in health care reform (control the rate of growth in health costs while improving health care), investing in new energy sources (lead us to energy independence), investing in environmental innovations (slow climate change and improve the quality of air we breathe), invest in infrastructure (improve roads, bridges, transportation, and communication, to name a few).

In other words, we can pay for the deficits of today with inflation if we do nothing or we can pay for the deficits by growing the economy in real terms through investing in the full potential that exists in the human mind. I don’t know about you, but I prefer the latter.

What is it with Republicans?

Every Republican walking down the street these days has two phrases you hear repeatedly: “Obama is going to raise your taxes.” The second phrase is: “McCain will cut your taxes.”

So, that’s it? Is it really that simple? Hardly. It is insulting to ask voters to base their vote on such simplistic nonsense, especially since the record of recent Republican presidents demonstrates they are profligate spenders whose borrowing and spending make liberal members of Congress blush.

Look at the record of Ronald Reagan, that great Republican icon. He said he wanted a balanced budget but America didn’t get one until Bill Clinton took office. Reagan never even came close to even thinking about balancing a budget during his 8 years in office. Instead, he tripled the national debt, growing the debt from $1.5 trillion to over $4 trillion by the time he left office.

Today, George Bush makes Reagan look like a piker. Under George Bush, the national debt has soared from $5.8 trillion in 2001 to almost 10 TRILLION DOLLARS today.

Maybe, “my friends” in the Republican Party, you would be willing to raise taxes to pay some of the $406 Billion needed annually to pay the interest on the debt run up on the watch of your Republican Presidents? ( 25% of the notes are held by foreign interests, up from 13% in 1988, so we owe a lot of money to “our friends” overseas who don’t like us one bit.)

Bush holds the record for annual spending and has proposed a budget of $3.01 trillion dollars for fiscal year 2009 which starts October 1, 2008. Barry Goldwater and Everett McKinley Dirksen would not know these guys.

So when somebody says, “Obama is going to raise your taxes,” say to them, “I’d rather pay more taxes to a President who will actually balance the federal government than keep sending the same taxes to someone else who cares only about spending more than he takes in and passing the debt to my kids.”

Incidentally, George Bush finally has submitted a projected balanced budged….for the year 2012!