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| For gravitas President Obama sang "I'm a Little Teapot" accompanied by an lutist. |
President Obama, whose annual deficit spending has been more than twice as high as any other recent president’s (even as a percentage of the gross domestic product), has now released his new deficit plan. As the Wall Street Journal notes, “It is the president’s fourth package of deficit-reduction ideas this year.” Of these, only the first — his budget — was scored by a neutral, respected third-party. In that instance, Obama said his proposal would lower deficit spending by $1.1 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office said his proposal would raise deficit spending by $2.7 trillion — increasing it (over the next decade) from a projected $6.7 trillion under current law to $9.5 trillion under his proposal.
The president’s latest proposal, which would increase taxes and thereby dis-incentivize work and investment, would likely have similar effects. Two things have brought about the unprecedented deficits under Obama: runaway spending, and an economic “recovery” that’s been a historic flop. The president’s new plan would do essentially nothing to address the former, and would likely cause the latter to sink even further.
This is a classic example of Emerson's, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." The question of how fast? Faster than anyone thought possible.
