Judge a man by his actions and results, not his words. How has Obama done?
Obama is the king of debt
Thursday, October 18,2012
“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.
Even worse, Obama has not exercised enough muscle to earn even one congressional vote for his latest budget. It failed unanimously, with every voting House and Senate member giving his blueprint bipartisan thumbs down. The House killed Obama’s proposal 0-414. The Senate followed suit, 0-99. That Obama could not convince even one of Congress’ 535 members to support such pivotal legislation represents a canyonesque low in presidential ineptitude. How appropriate for a man who has driven America off a cliff, and still floors the accelerator, as the nation speeds toward the jagged rocks below.
Obama also inculcates a culture of spending. If he tightened his belt, and demanded accountability among federal employees, Washington might emulate his model. Instead, the bacchanal roars on. Among infinite examples of this obscenity:
— The Agriculture Department spent $2 million to launch an internship program. And then it hired precisely one intern. This breathtaking sum included $192,500 to house that intern.
— Obama has expanded the Lifeline program, which now gives poor people free cellphones. While started under President Ronald Reagan, Obama has exploded Lifeline’s budget 107 percent — from $772 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion today.
— The Obama administration gave A123 Systems a stimulus grant to manufacture electric-car batteries. Obama predicted at a 2010 Rose Garden ceremony that A123 would hire “more than 3,000 by the end of 2012.” He added: “This is what’s possible in a clean-energy economy.”
A123 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday. It already burned through $132 million of its $249 million allocation. It also had received money in 2003 and 2007 from the profligate Bush-Rove administration. Sadly, Obama turned his predecessor’s spending fever into fiscal pneumonia.
A123 is now at least the 14th Obama-funded green bankruptcy. As GOP nominee Mitt Romney told Obama in their first debate: “I had a friend who said you don’t just pick the winners and losers. You pick the losers.”
Some of these eco-fiascos are tragicomic. According to one Abound Solar employee, “Our solar modules worked, as long as you didn’t put them in the sun.” The Daily Caller also reported that Abound’s solar panels had a bad habit of bursting into flames.
Awash in red ink, President Obama seems to be sinking in the Red Sea.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. Email him at deroy.Murdock(at)gmail.com.
Stucky says:
“And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.”
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
19th October 2012 at 9:00 am
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
Just a note, modern chickens are NOT feral, they are totally domesticated and cannot survive “in the wild”.
Just like most Americans these days, just sayin’.
And if “in the wild” means “3rd world country”, well, WE ARE DOOMED.
But hey!! We’ll just power our homes with solar panels and use batteries when it is cloudy and it will all be well, la la la la la la la, riding our lollipop pooping unicorns!!!
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
19th October 2012 at 9:18 am
Eddie says:
It’s so totally obvious that he sucked to the max for the last four years. No thinking person could possibly argue with that.
But some large percentage will vote to keep their checks coming.
Some will vote against Romney, who is one of the only people I can think of whom I personaaly would call a total douchebag.
And I, and a few other lost sould will vote for Ron Paul.
So…way too close to call.
Like or Dislike:
4 
1
19th October 2012 at 9:34 am
Eddie says:
“lost souls”
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
19th October 2012 at 9:56 am
Muck About says:
@Eddie: Hey guy…. Fucking Word Press does not allow you to “edit” posts or articles or any damnthingelse once you hit the return key.. Coming back to post a correction is reserved for selected bad spellers and sorry composers here on TBP!
Aw well…. You did good… Keep it up..
MA
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
19th October 2012 at 11:37 am
Eddie says:
Sorry, i’m on an old computer at work with no spellcheck. I’ll try to do better.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
19th October 2012 at 11:53 am
Bob says:
I really enjoy this site and others like it, but I have to say that after about 7 years (when I first got into this stuff after reading Kunstler’s book, The Long Emergency) of reading the same thing over and over and over and over again, albeit articulated with passion and intelligence and wit, I am afraid that the conclusion I have come to is that we are totally at the mercy of the system. For example, with arguments over Obama versus Romney, we’d all agree they’re both terrible, but what is our choice. It’s either between this devil or that devil. With inflation and the rising price of essentials, we have no control over that. We are at the mercy of whatever today’s gasoline price is or whatever tomorrow’s food prices are. I used to think there would be some event which would cause an acute collapse, but it’s really just a slow circling of the drain with most of us getting closer and closer and closer, but not getting sucked down that dark circle of oblivion. Yes, there are thousands and thousands who have, but we haven’t reached the collapse of Rome yet. It’s hard to plan when you get nicked at little bit by little bit by little bit…
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
19th October 2012 at 11:12 am