Now that Obamacare does not have the votes to pass “as is” in both the House and Senate, the speech writers for the state of the union address will be hard at work. They were hoping to get it passed so Obama would have at least one accomplishment to brag about (Cap and Trade was another that he could not push through…Copenhagen disaster…failed attempt to push Olympic bid for Chicago…). Amazingly enough, Obama will probably focus on the budget. Word is that he is asking for an executive commission. That will probably be a key component in his speech. This commission would look for ways to reduce government spending and make recommendations to Congress. (And it even would have some Republicans on it…10 dollars he appoints Snowe as one of his choices)
But at this point can we really take this as anything more as a political stunt? Obama just last month said that the government has to spend itself out of the recession. And the ever famous David Axelrod was quoted in the WSJ this week saying “We have to make sure we don’t make the mistake that Japan made, that we don’t make the mistake that President Roosevelt made in late ’30s and throttle everything down so quickly that we pitch ourselves backward into a double-dip recession.” (Please, someone get this guy a history book)
The truth of the matter is that they are just passing the responsibility to someone else. Why cannot Congress cut spending on their own? Why can’t the President just say no? It is the same reason big corporations bring in consultants when they ‘re-organize’. No one wants to make the politically unpopular decisions. No one wants to be the bad guy. Too many people and organizations live off the government and they do not want to lose those votes. (I would also expect to see a little raising of the taxes…anyone up for being patriotic) If they were really serious about their out of control spending, then they would have frozen discretionary spending levels. Instead they have increased over 25% over the last 3 years. If they were serious, they would begin to wean these government dependent organizations and force them to become self sufficient and privately funded.
You do not need to be a rocket scientist to come up with these budget reducing ideas. I imagine anyone reading this could come up with a bunch more and I would be interested to hear them. The problem is that many in this current administration really do believe that it is the government’s responsibility to spur economic growth and to fund all of these programs and organizations. Until this mindset is changed, you will not see the proper steps taken to fix the problem. Even with another great speech from the great one.
(For those who want a little something for your liberal friends who repeatedly say that conservatives do not want health care reform, here is a link to the foundry that briefly discusses the alternative ideas that Republicans presented and were ignored… along with a few other tidbits. I believe now would be the time for Democrats to really take these limited government ideas seriously. )
