Obama's True Aim: Not the Deficit Reduction

but rewriting the US tax code so that it is "fair".

Reuters' article quotes Obama at a news conference at G20 in Toronto, saying he is serious about reigning in the huge US budget deficit (i.e. deficit incurred by his government).

"I'm serious about it," Obama said when asked at a news conference at the Group of 20 summit in Canada if he believed he could meet his deficit reduction goals.

No plan, no anything, but he is serious. He even challenged people who want deficit reduction (i.e. his government actually cutting spending), basically saying "You want deficit reduction? Oh yeah? Watch me do exactly that, and you'll regret it."

Oh wait, he has a plan, if you look at the opening sentence and the very last sentence of the article:

Obama also said that he believed a review of the "messy and unfair" U.S. tax code should be considered as part of a plan to deal with long-term budget problems.

"We've got to look at a tax system that is messy and unfair in a whole range of ways," Obama said.

Oh no... Most American taxpayers know the US tax system is a mess with a huge bureaucracy (IRS) gaining more and more power (latest via the health care so-called "reform"), and they know it needs to be changed.

Sound familiar? Just like health care. Majority of Americans knew the nation's health care system needed change, but they were and still are against the particular "reform" proposed by the Obama administration and passed into law by the supposed representatives of American people in Congress.

So my guess is that his "plan" is to scare people by proposing to cut or partial default on "entitlement" programs, and then when people cry foul propose vastly raise taxes to cover his spending and rewrite the tax code as he sees fit to justify the tax increase.

Shake and bake. Or never waste a crisis, and if you don't have a crisis create one.

You can bet Obama has his own definition of "fairness". Like raising taxes for the so-called "rich" so that the hard-working public union employees can retire with multi-million dollar pensions.

Tweet

Obama "Humphreys" the Deficit by Setting Up a Panel

by executive fiat to study how to reduce federal deficit.

What's "Humphrey", you ask? It's from Sir Humphrey Appleby, a fictional character in a British comedy, a staunch defender of the status quo, who advises a newbie Minister that they form a committee when they don't want to find out about anything.

Obama sets up deficit panel without help from Hill (2/18/2010 AP via Yahoo Finance)

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday unilaterally creating a bipartisan commission to rein in unruly deficits after Congress rejected a similar body with considerably more enforcement power.

"In making the announcement, Obama said that unless lawmakers put aside partisan differences, the continuing red-ink trend could "hobble our economy."

"The federal deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion last year and could grow larger this year as the struggling economy puts a big dent in tax collections.

""It will cloud our future and it will saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden," he said before signing an executive order establishing the commission." [The article continues.]

Is this some kind of sick joke? This guy is surpassing FDR in terms of government spending; he just signed a bill that raised the debt limit by $1.9 billion which may carry us till the end of February; his 2011 budget is $3.8 trillion.

He IS the cause for "the continuing red-ink trend", and he is the one who "will cloud our future and saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden". The red-ink trend will continue not because of partisan differences but because of his government's spending.

I can tell him, so can the majority of this country, how to reduce deficit without wrecking the country's tax-paying middle class and without creating a panel stuffed with some august appointees.

Stop spending.

(By the way, speaking of executive orders, do you remember what Obama's last two executive orders were? One was to confer full diplomatic immunity to INTERPOL, and the other was to create the council of governors for national security.)

Tweet

Obama Endorses Deficit Task Force While Racking Up Record Deficit

This guy is getting incoherent by the day.

Obama endorses deficit task force (1/23/2010 AP via Yahoo Finance)

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama Saturday endorsed a bipartisan plan to name a special task force charged with coming up with a plan to curb the spiraling budget deficit, though the idea has lots of opposition from both his allies and rivals on Capitol Hill.

"The bipartisan 18-member panel backed by Obama would study the issue for much of the year and, if 14 members agree, report a deficit reduction blueprint after the November elections that would be voted on before the new Congress convenes next year. The 14 would have to include at least half of the panel's Republicans -- a big obstacle.

""These deficits did not happen overnight, and they won't be solved overnight," Obama said in a statement. "The only way to solve our long-term fiscal challenge is to solve it together -- Democrats and Republicans."

"The deficit spiked to an extraordinary $1.4 trillion last year and could top that figure this year as the struggling economy puts a big dent in tax revenues. Even worse from the perspective of economists and deficit hawks, the medium-term deficit picture is for deficits hitting around $1 trillion a year for the foreseeable future." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

Not only that, the debt limit is set to be raised by $1.9 trillion dollars (which, by the way, will require all of 60 votes in the Senate to pass). Who is he kidding?

Himself?

This is not the first time and definitely will not be the last time for me to remind the readers that when politicians don't want to solve anything and don't want to find out about anything, they form a committee, or a task force or whatever they want to call it. I'm looking for that particular episode of BBC's "Yes Prime Minister" where Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey tells his novice boss exactly that. It could have been "Yes Minister".

The president must have watched the episode. (Or his handlers did.)

Tweet