Fred Barnes: Obama's Pathetic Budget

Of all the articles on the internet about Obama's budget, this headline and article by Fred Barnes caught my eye because of the title: "Obama's Pathetic Budget" which sums up the budget in three short words.

The high speed rail was covered on here yesterday -- we cannot believe that Obama is adamant about this boondoggle. Can remember when he promised then Governor Charlie Crist of Florida they were going to get the money for high speed rail like it would help him win in his fight for the Florida Senate seat against Marco Rubio. The closer Crist got to Obama the more he lost Republicans until finally he went NO PARTY, but that didn't help either -- he lost to Rubio big time on November 2nd. We would expect Marco Rubio in the Senate to go after this boondoggle of high speed rail as Florida doesn't need this added expense to their budget either.

Obama’s plan includes spending hikes in some areas. The most egregious may be $53 billion for construction of high-speed rail in Florida, California and several other states. This is one of the least cost-effective projects in the history of wasteful government spending. Yet it’s one of the president’s pet projects, and he appears more wedded to it than to taming the rise in the national debt.

Would bet his high speed rail boondoggle is DOA in the House. Would also bet that Florida Democrat Senator Bill Nelson would rather have the $53B for NASA which Obama seems to be out to destroy.

Obama's Pathetic Budget12:30 AM, Feb 14, 2011 • By FRED BARNES

Let’s be candid about President Obama’s budget. It’s pathetic. The country faces a worsening debt crisis and Obama has not come to play. He kissed off the crisis in his State of the Union address last month. And now his plan for spending over the next 10 years doesn’t come close to dealing with the debt problem.

So he's 0-for-2 in coming to grips with the fiscal mess that threatens America’s economic position at home and abroad. Obama didn’t create the crisis, but in two years his spending has added $3 trillion to the national debt. In 2011, the deficit figures to be nearly 10 percent of the gross domestic product. In 2012, the deficit will exceed $1 trillion for the third consecutive year.

Obama would cut spending by $1.1 trillion over the coming decade. That figure is smaller than the projected deficit of $1.5 trillion in 2011. Think about that: Obama’s total reductions are less than a single year’s deficit. That’s what I mean by pathetic.

A highly publicized item in the 2012 budget is a 5-year (partial) freeze on discretionary spending, a saving of $400 billion. That was swallowed up this year when Congressional Budget Office re-calculated the deficit for 2011 deficit and boosted it from $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, the biggest 1-year deficit ever.

(snip)

The Obama budget is so unresponsive to the fiscal situation that it prompts this question: it’s merely a tactical budget. He’s now waiting to see what Republicans will propose in their 2012 budget, the outlines of which are to be hammered out by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan in April. Following that, Obama and congressional Republicans will negotiate, ultimately agreeing on a budget.

That’s the most benign interpretation I can think of. A more likely explanation: Obama has set the stage to attack Republicans for proposing spending cuts certain to be deeper than those Obama is advocating.

Excerpt: Read More at The Weekly Standard

If Obama and the Democrats think this 'pathetic budget' is going to set up Republicans to make the electorate mad at them for deeper cuts, he has been hanging out with Bill Clinton too much. Deeper cuts are exactly what the American people want to get this Country back on track and spoke loudly about that on November 2nd.

Looks like Obama and the Democrats want another Government shutdown to blame on Republicans, but it is not going to work this time. Obama is dealing with a House that understands how Democrats work.  With Paul Ryan as head of the House Budget Committee, Obama and his people are out of their league. Under Clinton, the GOP received really bad PR because the Clintonites were masters of spin starting with Clinton. This is a new day and people have more than the alphabet networks to give them the news.

Whatever happened to his Debt Commission recommendations made in December? That group favored $4 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. Cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory spending programs recommended by that Debt Commission were ignored by Obama in his budget. Looks like the Obama Debt Commission was another boondoggle by this Administration. Which Clintonite recommended the Commission?

The White House has even more Clintonites in it today then when Obama first took office. Every since Bill Clinton took over the press conference, the number of Clintonites who were close to Bill and Hillary have now been appointed by Obama. Just who is running the White House now? This latest budget stunt seems to be right out of the Clinton playbook to try and make Republicans look bad. Not going to work and in the end this 'do nothing President' about the deficit and reining in spending will find out that he is on the outside looking into the White House in January 2013.