“Today I am pledging to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office,” President Barack Obama boldly declared on Feb. 23, 2009. Among Obama’s parade of disappointments, this may be the most dangerous.
Obama was inaugurated as the fiscal year 2009 deficit eventually totaled $1.41 trillion. Had he halved this shortfall, FY 2012’s deficit should have remained below $705 billion. Instead, it was $1.1 trillion — $395 billion above Obama’s pledge.
Under Obama, America has made history: four consecutive annual deficits surpassing $1 trillion. After FY 2009’s $1.41 trillion hole (which he and an all-Democratic Congress could have filled), the next three deficits were, respectively, $1.29 trillion, $1.3 trillion, and $1.1 trillion. Thus, Obama has swelled the national debt by $5.1 trillion, all in one term. Another record.
As The Weekly Standard’s Jeffrey H. Anderson recalls, Obama predicted in May 2009 that FY 2012’s deficit would be just $557 billion. Obama underestimated the depth of last year’s red ink by almost exactly half. Never take a diving lesson from this man. Obama’s massive misjudgment confirms his profligacy and incompetence. The least a president should do is accurately forecast the pace at which he spends the nation into oblivion. Obama cannot manage even that.
Obama’s stunning lack of leadership fuels this catastrophe. Budgets are key to controlling spending. Nonetheless, while the Republican House of Representatives has passed two budgets, Obama has permitted the Democratic Senate to violate the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act by refusing to endorse any budget whatsoever. Like an equatorial backwater patrolled by feral chickens, the United States of America has not adopted a budget since April 29, 2009.
1 comment:
Thats what happens when you have a president who has never had a real job, run a business, or had to balance the books. He thinks (as all "community organizers do) that the government just writes a check from the never-ending waterfall of cash in back of the White House. And his supporters apparently think the same, since they don't seem too worried about a --- wait for it --- SIXTEEN TRILLION DOLLAR deficit. No one can even imagine what that amount of money is...And obama wants it HIGHER! My God. We are in deep trouble.
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