A "Hard" Time

During last night's Presidential press conference, Barack Obama discussed the projected budget deceits for the next decade. He attempted to deflect blame off of himself, onto the Republicans and the previous administration, saying, "I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory, because as I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit, from them.

Later on, when another reporter challenged him on his claim that the Republicans were the evil guys in the room, reminding him that Democrats had also claimed that the budget deficit would be "doubled," the President responded with, "Look if this were easy, then we would have already had it done and the budget would have been voted on and everybody could go home. This is hard. And the reason it's hard is because we've accumulated a structural deficit that's going to take a long time, and we're not going to be able to do it next year or the year after or three years from now."

A couple of issues: what this administration engages in or encounters is Barack Obama's problem - not President Bush's. Although President Bush spent a lot of money on the federal government, he did not promote some of the policies that President Obama is now pushing for. It's time for President Obama to stop making veiled assertions that he is cleaning up the mess he has inherited. He is lifting the "mess" to greater heights - not cleaning it up. President Obama needs to realize that he is now the President of the United States and responsible for the policies his administration sets.

Yes, there was a deficit to wipe off the books. And yes, that deficit was commandeered by President Bush. However, President Obama has shown no interest in truly cutting down the size of government - thus assisting the elimination of the deficit.

On the other hand, it appears that President Obama is spending more recklessly than any other United States President before him. He is proposing programs that do nothing more than drain funds from the system - a system that is funded by the taxpayer. The United States' national debt is over eleven trillion dollars (as of March 25, 2009). The Congressional Budget Office set the total projected federal budget deficit over the next decade at $9.3 trillion (the White House argues that the projection is closer to $7 trillion). These projections take into account only the 2010 proposed budget ($3.55 trillion) - what will happen to these projections in the next three fiscal years?

Now is this budget proposal hard to pass through Congress? Hardly. The Congress is controlled by the Democrats (the same party as the man who sits in the Oval Office last time I checked). There are no checks in Washington to the party in control - none at all. The Democrats could even block a filibuster by manipulating two or three Republican votes to cross party lines for individual votes. Anything can be passed through Congress and the White House fairly easily.

What makes the choice word "hard" is the fact that the Democrats have the American people on the back of their minds. They show glimpses of understanding, at times, that many United States' citizens are fed up with all of the spending that goes on in Washington. The Democrats seem to acknowledge the fact that they cannot always act like they enjoy spending trillions of taxpayer dollars, destroying the private sector, and instituting socialized programs such as universal health care and education. They have to feign a drawn-out battle, one that they appear to take extremely seriously.

The American people still call the shots in the United States of America. It's time for those people to awaken and demand that their elected officials adhere to their collective voices.