Obama — Too Little, Too Late

The United States may very well owe a crushing $20 trillion by 2020. And thus President Obama last week named a bipartisan commission to find ways to address our national debt.

Such a Periclean response might sound sincere and worthwhile. But it comes 13 months into this administration — and only after Obama added nearly $1.5 trillion in new borrowing in 2009. And by the time the new deficit commission submits its recommendations at the end of this year, the current 2010 budget will have put us out another $1.5 trillion.

The president not that long ago ran on the theme of fiscal sobriety. During the 2008 campaign, he took advantage of the public anger over the Bush deficits that had climbed to an aggregate of $2.5 trillion over eight years. Now, though, he looks to trump Bush's eight-year record of red ink in his first two years.

Obama also just invited the Republican opposition to a summit at the White House to iron out differences over his stalled healthcare legislation. Such a "let bygones, be bygones" group discussion likewise sounds like a good idea — given the climbing cost of health insurance and the millions who cannot afford it.

But the problem again is that such outreach comes too little too late — more than a year after Obama began his unilateral effort to have the government assume much of the nation's healthcare system. A year ago — with a supermajority in the Senate and basking in the swell of the November 2008 election — Obama didn't worry much over the lack of Republican input.

GO HERE to read more.