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Dan
Calabrese
Read Dan's bio and previous columns here
August 27, 2009
Oops! Obama’s OMB
Projections Nowhere Near Accurate . . . Oh Well!
Remember how we needed a $787 billion “stimulus” to prevent unemployment
from topping 8 percent? Remember how this “stimulus” was going to bring
back economic growth to help pay for President Obama’s spending binge,
and keep the resulting deficits from getting out of control?
Oops. Never mind!
Obama’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) admitted yesterday that
their projections on unemployment, economic growth and deficits over the
next decade were about as close to accurate as a Detroit Lions fan who
predicted playoff glory last year.
In
other words, they pulled numbers out of their butts – based on hopes and
dreams – and ran them out there for the nation to soak up. They had no
idea what they were talking about, which didn’t stop them from selling
the Democratic Congress on a massive spending spree, then coming back
and asking for the privilege of putting health care under federal
control, on the theory that this same bunch of geniuses could best
control the costs thereof.
Whereas OMB once forecast a 2010 deficit of “only” $1.2 trillion, it now
admits it will be at least $1.5 trillion. Whereas OMB once claimed
Obama’s policies would stem the soaring unemployment rate, it now admits
it will top 10 percent before the end of the year. Whereas OMB once
projected economic growth of 3.2 percent next year, it now admits it
will be lucky to reach 2.0 percent.
Oops!
Oh
well, what’s a little change in some numbers? Oh yeah, right, these
numbers were the reason we were all supposed to be OK with Obama’s
drunken-sailor spending proposals. These numbers were the reason we were
supposed to believe he is not putting the country on an irreversible
path to fiscal ruin. Because hey, a decade’s worth of $1 trillion
deficits only doubles the national debt. The way Obama’s going,
we’re more likely to triple it, and that’s before we consider
unfunded obligations to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Add those in, and you’re looking at $70 trillion you have to come up
with somewhere. How exactly do you do that when you’re bleeding cash to
the tune of nearly $2 trillion a year? It sounds like something the
people who run General Motors would come up with. Wait. Obama does
run General Motors.
And these are the people who tell us that the way to get control over
health care costs is to put them in charge of it. Hoo-kay! That’s
a great idea. Why not just let them pull health care cost projections
out of their butts? It’s what they do for everything else. When they’re
off by a trillion here and a trillion there, they just borrow the
difference from China, which has unlimited supplies and will never ask
us to pay it back. That’s how it works. Right?
During last year’s campaign, when Obama was berating “Joe the CEO” and
telling all the beleaguered working classes how he was going to “fight
for them” and so forth, there might have been a few people who sounded
the alarm that the nation had enough fiscal problems as it was, and that
massive new domestic spending to allow Obama to keep all these promises
might bankrupt the entire country.
But few listened, because super rock star Obama represented hope and
change, and he was so smart.
Anyone can sound smart when they utter complete nonsense with style and
eloquence, and the mainstream media refuse to call them on it because
they are in love. That’s how Obama got to be president. Now he is
spending us into oblivion faster than any president in history, even as
his budget people admit their projections had little to do with reality.
Oh, and the young voters who turned out en masse to help put Obama in
office? Who do you think is going to foot the bill for the economic
collapse their guy is ensuring?
You wanted things different! Hey, nice going. We’ve sure as hell never
seen anything like this before.
© 2009 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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