A Lot of Hope...No Change!

I did not see President Obama's press conference yesterday.  However, the reports of what he said make you wonder if his teleprompter was out for repair or he is living in an alternate universe. My hope had been that the President would use his 2012 budget submission to lay out the facts to the American people that we are on an unsustainable path.  I did not expect him to propose any meaningful cuts but I had hoped that he would have at least talked straight with the American people about the facts.

To say that what came out his mouth was, "bizarre" as PowerLine describes it, is an understatement.  Consider a few of the statements about the budget proposal he submitted.

"Our budget meets that pledge and puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade."

"On the budget, what my budget does is to put forward some tough choices, some significant spending cuts so that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues."

"What we say in our budget is let's get control of our discretionary budget to make sure that whatever it is that we're spending on an annual basis, we're also taking in a similar amount."

"We will not be adding more to the national debt."

Shown below is a summary of the budget using the Administration's projections that indicates we will have a $1.1 trillion deficit in 2012 and it will still be $774 billion in 2021.  Over the 10 year period an additional $7.2 trillion in debt will be added. ("We will not be adding more to the national debt"?)

I think most people would think the middle of the decade would be 2015 (let's cut him some slack and give him until 2016).   The President's numbers show deficit in excess of $600 billion in each of these years (..."by the middle of the decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues"?) and total almost $5 trillion from 2015 to 2021 (..."puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade"?).  It is difficult to find any spending that matches revenues in his budget proposal.

This is beyond troubling.  This is the President of the United States speaking.  He has the platform to educate and inform even if he does not act.  The house is burning down and he is talking about it like he has a nice, cozy fire going in the fireplace.

All I can say is that he still appears to have a lot of hope left him.  What we need from him is the change.