Jamie

Weinstein

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July 21, 2009

Can We Afford Any More of Obama’s Hope and Change?

If you are reading this column, congratulations. You’ve survived the first six months of the Obama era. But after six months, you may be wondering how much more “hope” and “change” America can take.

It’s a fair question. We live in dangerous times with great threats abroad, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that our domestic debt problem is nearly as serious as the threat from Al-Qaeda. One would hope we would have sensible policies to address our mounting financial problems. Instead, Obama seems intent on pushing proposals that are making our situation worse.

At six months in, we can safely proclaim that the Bush era has passed away and the Age of Obama is in full swing. Things are a lot different in the Obama Age. For starters, pre-Obama, the most famous prognosticator was everybody’s favorite groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. Every February 2, he emerges from his hole to determine how much longer winter will last. No small responsibility.

But in the Age of Obama, Punxsutawney Phil has been replaced by another prognosticator, Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini. Instead of forecasting winter’s duration, Roubini is one of the few economists left standing after the economic downturn with his reputation intact to forecast the recession’s end. Emerging last week, Roubini provided some good news: He didn’t see his shadow!

Roubini insists, however, his view that the recession will cease by the end of the year is not a new prediction. Despite the market’s positive reaction, no one should mistake Roubini for an optimist. He doesn’t see great growth for the economy around the corner.

Even though we currently look forward to trillion-dollar budget deficits for the foreseeable future, Obama is seeking to push through another gigantic entitlement in universal health care. Whatever you think of universal health care, there is one glaring fact you can’t escape: We can’t afford it.  

Yet, Vice President Joe Biden could be seen out and about shilling for universal health care with an argument that makes one want to bang their head against a wall – and a really hard wall at that.

“We are going bankrupt as a nation,” our loquacious vice president said at an AARP town hall seeming, for a moment, to be talking sanely. Then, perhaps thinking he was speaking to the American Association of Idiots rather than the American Association of Retired People, he followed up his otherwise reasonable statement with this gem:

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?,’” he said while arguing for Congress to pass universal health care legislation. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

Yes, that’s right, while admitting our serious financial straits, Biden is arguing for creating another huge health care entitlement despite the fact that the Congressional Budget Office says current proposals would make our already unsustainable budget problems even worse. This is not what the doctor ordered for our mounting economic problems.

Biden would continue, in an unrecorded part of the speech, saying, “Now when I say money grows on trees, people say, ‘What you talking about Willis, err, I mean Joe? You telling me money actually grows on trees?’ The answer is yes – if by ‘grows’ you understand me to mean ‘comes’ and by ‘on trees’ you understand me to mean ‘from massive loans from China.’”

(Side note: I probably should clarify that the last paragraph was a joke. Normally, there would be no need to offer such a clarification. But with Biden, some may actually believe this an actual quote.)

Is this maddening to anyone else? I am not an economist (in the aftermath of the financial crisis, I offer this as a credential) but does this not seem unimaginably irresponsible?

Think about it what we’ve seen over the last six months: 

1)       With Obama’s backing, Congress passed a huge $787 billion stimulus bill in February, which doesn’t seem to have stimulated much other than the pocketbooks of members of Congressman John Murtha’s family.

2)       Now, because the first stimulus hasn’t worked so well, Obama seems to be hinting about passing a second large stimulus worth hundreds of billions of dollars, thus adding even more to our national debt.

3)       While we are struggling to get out of this recession, Obama is working steadfastly to pass a universal health care plan that will be enormously expensive. The bill could also increase taxes on those job creators whom we need to help pull us out of this recession. 

4)       If that is not enough, if the Senate doesn’t balk, we may get a 1,000-plus page global warming cap-and-trade bill that almost nobody has read and that may make Al Gore rich, but will likely further stifle our economy.

Wowsers. Who is advising Obama? Larry Summers or Daffy Duck?

Meanwhile, when Americans need responsible Republican leadership and real alternatives to Obama’s mind-bogglingly bad polices, we so far haven’t gotten much. Paging Republican leaders? Where are you? We need you.

I don’t know about you, but after six months, I have had my fill of “hope” and “change” for a lifetime.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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