Barack Obama: Mortgaging Our Children's Future

Let me preface this by saying I voted for Obama, and even worked for the DNC over the summer going door to door to get donations for the Democrats efforts. I was raised Western Orthdox Democrat, Bush has always been a dirty word in my fathers house. I currently am a registered Republican, for the primary vote, leaning Democrat. Naturally, I could not vote for McCain and, the idea of VP Palin, makes me pale. So I had to default to Obama, really I would have perfered someone more like Mike Bloomberg. Now, let me get on to my argument.

I have always been skeptical of Barack Obama, I have always suspected he might be a wolf in sheeps clothing, but now he has shown it. During his run for President, my favorite line that Obama reused in speeches was the one about "Mortgaging our children's future." He always condemned George W. Bush of doing that, by charging obscene sums to the national debt, with no plan to pay it off. Currently, President Obama is guilty of the same reckless spending, according to the New York Times, we are potentially facing years of trillion dollar deficits. This in addition to the $825 billion dollar stimulus package he passed, loaded with pork spending. ABC World News reports, "Republicans say the bill is filled with old-fashioned big-government spending that won't stimulate the economy. For example, $600 million to buy new cars for government employees, and $1 billion to follow up on the 2010 census, which, of course, hasn't happened yet."

I'm usually not so anal as to grip over the small details, but in a time of such hardship, when the economy is so strained and close to the breaking point, now is the time for restraint. I don't see how Obama can publicly scold Citigroup for using some of their bailout funds to buy a $50 million dollar jet, when Obama is using $600 million to buy new cars. Perhaps the $600 million is an additional "bailout" for Detroit's hurting auto industry, who knows? What I do know is how hypocritical this looks to the average observer, and I also know how much that could hurt Obama's legitimacy. For me the real irony is that my favorite line he used in the speeches, has turned into the thing I dislike the most about his Presidency.

We're already so indebted they had to remove the $ symbol from the national debt clock, to make room for another digit, we're already at 10.6 trillion dollars in debt, add in the $825 billion stimulus, that's over 11 trillion dollars. That is money that my generation, and my grandchildren, will have to pay off. If I shrunk this down in scale to my own personal life, it would be like my father buying a mansion, a yacht, and a new corvet on credit, then dying and leaving it to me to pay off. No self respecting parent would do that, and no respectable government should do that. I want to run for office someday, that is presuming there is still an America then, the way things are going I don't know if anyone will be able to pick up the pieces. I worry for the future of this country, and not just the economy, we're only at the tip of the ice berg, it's all uphill from here. After we get the economy stable, we still have the issue of nuclear terrorism, also global warming coupled with a devastating drought here in California, lets not forget the ongoing immigrantion issues.

There is a school of economics where massive deficit spending is considered the way to combat a recession, but Keynesian economics can only go so far, and only do so much. Theoretically a country is only meant to apply it's methods for a few years, then switch back to a balanced budget. America has been running on Reaganomics (supply side, Keynesian economics) since Reagan coined the term in the 80's, before I was born to protest it. Now that I am alive, I want an end to financial irresponsibility. My American Government teacher at Cabrillo College always had a good way of helping her students wrap their heads around government. The way she explained Keynesian economics to us was thus: "Shrink it down to your personal life, and you running your house. In Keynesian economics, you cut taxes and spend more, so in our example you are basically working less hours at your job but spending more. How long do you think you could keep that up for?" That example has stuck with me, and I ask Obama, and America, how long can we keep this up for?