Whenever questions regarding the state of the economy or the exploding federal budget deficit arise, the President is quick to point out he inherited the calamitous state the nation finds itself in. So insistent and repetitive were Obama's disclaimers early on that I proposed the President discard "Hail To The Chief" for a modified version of Billy Joel's hit, "We Didn't Start The Fire".
However, eight months into his term I believe the time has come for Obama to change his tune.
The President, along with his fellow political travelers Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, has made decisions, taken action, established policies and passed legislation they are solely responsible for. The $700+ stimulus package was their baby. The looming Cap and Trade legislation and the health care reform leviathan are priorities of their agenda. In all three cases, these are products of a concert between competing factions of the Democratic Party in Congress, their leadership and the White House.
Let's be frank. They, the President and the Democratic leadership in Congress, have chosen a course for the nation. Having pummeled Republicans at the ballot box last November, this is their right and responsibility.
Yet, we most be equally candid in recognizing that not only does that course take us farther down the primrose path of deficits and indebtedness, it exponentially accelerates the already breath-taking speed that we're going. Instead of applying the brakes of fiscal frugality, the President and his need-for-spending-speed compatriots in Congress want to put the budgetary pedal to the metal. Case in point, health care reform.
Despite ominous warnings from the President of the World Bank of the dollar's decline and not so subtle signals from the Chinese that they may be approaching the point where they've had their fill of a steady diet of US Treasury notes, Obama, Pelosi and Reid doggedly pursue health care reform that will explode an already gargantuan annual deficit and add trillions to the national debt. Instead of performing triage on an already hemorrhaging Medicare system, the troublesome trio is hellbent on making another catastrophic incision into the American economic body.
Meanwhile, the inflationary flames lapping at the dollar continue to rise. As the World Bank and our creditors watch in horrified amazement, the President and his obstinately obtuse Congressional allies insist on adding fuel to the fire. What is already a robust bonfire is about to become a raging inferno. The resulting economic conflagration will literally impact our standard of living and America's global standing for generations to come.
No, the President didn't start the fire, but he's now responsible for it. Particularly when he's gone from fighting the flames to fueling them. Indeed, the once somber firefighter has become a drunken fiscal pyromaniac.
Is that the chorus from the old Trammps hit, "Disco Inferno", I hear the President whistling? Burn, baby, burn!
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire, faithful readers. As is the rest of America's fiscal house.
Stay tuned for further updates as events warrant and the President, Speaker and Majority Leader stare in mesmerized wonder into the heart of the growing inferno.
