The Obama administration and key Democrats in Congress got some very unwelcome news this week.
New economic data, according to The Associated Press, will soon force the administration to increase its 10-year budget deficit projection to $9 trillion, up substantially from an earlier estimate of $7.1 trillion.
Most Americans don’t have economics degrees, but they understand a very simple economic principle, runaway debt can prove disastrous.
At this point the White House has given no indication of a willingness to cut its spending plans. Although President Obama has given lip service to the idea of fiscal restraint — remember the campaign talk of cutting runaway spending by Republicans — now that he is president, the deficit-conscious candidate from the campaign trail seems to have disappeared.
Obama claims that to make his grandiose plans successful, Congress must give him what he wants on a range of major issues. Reviving the economy and successfully conducting the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghan-istan aren’t enough.
Stimu-lus. Fin-ancial regulation. Cap and trade. Health care.
The president says he must have it all for any of it to be truly effective.
Ridiculous.
But don’t tell that to the president, or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Both are committed to the all-or-nothing strategy, despite the grave concerns (if not outright opposition) of many Americans, as well as wavering support within their own political party.
Many Americans also seem to be moving past the “blame it on Bush” strategy. The administration’s default position when faced with bad news is to shift the blame to the other guys. The economy is bad because of George Bush. Obama is just doing the best he can with the mess he inherited.
The new president did inherit a mess, though it is as intellectually dishonest as it is politically self-serving to dump all the blame on the previous administration.
At some point the Obama crowd and the Democratic leadership in Congress have to take responsibility for their failures, don’t they?
Our economy will begin to grow again. In fact, some indicators, including good economic news from Europe, point to a recession in its final stages.
However, the vitality of the economic recovery — including job creation and business expansion — can be severely weakened by anti-market, anti-growth policies.
Those are exactly the kind of policies the Democrats are pushing. We need for them to fail.
Jimmy Espy is executive editor of North Georgia Newspaper Group. He blogs at Espysoutpost.blog spot.com
