Washington Times writer Jeffrey Kuhner in his column today claims President Obama is responsible for the country’s deficit, and uses some interesting calculations to get to that result. For instance, Kuhner counts programs like SNAP (food stamps) and Social Security as Obama’s own socialist creations. Of course, SNAP and Social Security were established long before Obama took office.
Kuhner also said Obamacare is a budget-buster, clearly ignoring the study by the Congressional Budget Office which found that Obamacare reduces the deficit. He calls on Republicans to wage a “frontal assault” on Obama’s “anti-American, socialist” agenda which “poses a mortal threat to the republic’s long term survival.”
Liberals love to bash Mr. Bush. Their mantra is that Mr. Obama inherited a mess. Hence, the president is not responsible for his fiscal recklessness and unprecedented deficit spending. For liberal Democrats, it’s George W. Bush’s fault: The expensive bill for two unfunded wars, a large tax cut benefiting primarily the wealthy and a prescription drug benefit has come due. Mr. Obama is simply paying — and unfairly being blamed — for it.
This argument has one seminal flaw: It’s false. Mr. Obama’s policies have driven deficits and public spending to unprecedented peacetime heights. The government now spends nearly 25 percent of gross domestic product — considerably higher than the average post-World War II norm of 20 percent. Furthermore, the president has created Obamacare. It is the largest and most expensive entitlement program in 50 years. His trillion-dollar economic stimulus, billions of dollars in green-energy boondoggles, and an explosion in the use of food stamps, Social Security disability and unemployment benefits have led to massive government expansion. His goal is to erect a European-style social democracy. A bloated Franco-German welfare state is not only interventionist, but it is also costly — way too costly.
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It’s time Mr. Boehner and congressional Republicans waged a frontal assault on Mr. Obama’s welfare liberalism. The country’s very prosperity is at stake. The House speaker should hold a press conference, surrounded by fellow Republicans, and challenge Mr. Obama to publicly state what he says in private: America does not have a spending problem. If the president genuinely believes this, then voters have a right to know.
Mr. Obama’s comments open a window into his anti-American, socialist worldview. Either he is a brazen liar who knows we are living beyond our means, or he is a delusional, self-absorbed academic leftist who is so obsessed with transformational change that he cannot see that we are sliding off a real fiscal cliff. Whatever the reason, his presidency poses a mortal threat to the republic’s long-term survival.
Maybe this simple chart from the Treasury Department will help Kuhner – it shows that the Bush administration’s policies turned a budget surplus into a massive budget deficit. The Obama administration’s policies, which were enacted to reverse the severe financial crisis that materialized under Bush, led to relatively modest increases in the deficit.
