Thursday, February 17, 2011

If He Was Going To Lead, Wouldn't He Have Done It By Now?

All across the blogosphere and the newsmedia, people are wound up about the president's pathetic and timid budget. Here's a sample.
If a motto summed up the Obama presidency, it might be, “Life is short. Eat dessert first.” His policies are all about self-indulgence in the present, to be paid for with either long-run economic decline, or painful sacrifices by future generations.

His recent budget proposal, which contains a mix of real spending increases and mostly imaginary “cuts,” is a case in point. It pretends to cut spending and the deficit, but its “cuts” are slated to occur largely in the distant future (and thus may never happen), while its increases kick in almost immediately.
The details are here.

Spending is going up, not down.

What did you expect? When has this guy ever led?
  • The stimulus bill was left to Congress.
  • He never enumerated what he wanted out of the health care bill
  • He left the Iranian protestors to die in the streets rather than face the mullahs.
  • He left the Egyptian government to collapse rather than face the protestors.
Why is his latest budget a surprise? Stop expecting this guy to lead, have a plan, or make anything resembling a hard decision. He's just winging the whole thing, except for the speeches.

For the next two years, we're totally on our own.