The Obama Press Conference... A Cornucopia of !%&&%#*

Posted By Bobby Eberle On March 25, 2009 at 7:03 am

The Loft - http://www.gopusa.com/theloft -

President Obama went before the American people (again) in order to pitch his brand of socialist policies. His budget has come under attack, as I reported yesterday, and on Tuesday night, Obama tried to clarify why massive government spending and saddling America with unprecedented levels of debt are justified.

A number of statements and comments really caught my attention. From Obama saying that his administration needs to make some "tough budgetary choices" to a his comment that there will be "zero growth" if his agenda is not passed, there were plenty of sound bites to make the American people shudder. Please Republicans... step forward and lead... we can't let Obama take us down the path to socialism.

First, a note about the teleprompter... As reported in the Associated Press story on GOPUSA, Obama had a new teleprompter in place to deliver his opening remarks. As the AP notes, "President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference, reading a prepared statement in which he took both sides of the AIG bonus brouhaha and asked an anxious nation for its patience."

Next, how about a quick fact check. As noted in the AP "fact check" story, Obama notes that recovery from the recession "will take time, it will take patience." Yet, his own budget predicts a relatively quick end to the recession with "solid 3.2 percent growth for 2010, followed by three years of more than 4 percent growth each year." He uses these numbers to support his budget that adds trillions to the national debt. As I noted yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office predicts even more debt than Obama does... a debt that would cripple this nation.

The AP next focuses on Obama's statement that in the budget, "we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term even under the most pessimistic estimates." In reality, "Not all credible estimates foresee a deficit halved in that time."

In one exchange, Obama was asked about his budget which breaks new records in deficit spending. The reporter quoted Obama from just last week when he said, "I didn't run for president to pass on our problems to the next generation." Well, that is EXACTLY what he is doing... in addition to raising taxes and imposing more big government on the American people now. The reporter went on:

But under your budget, the debt will increase $7 trillion over the next 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office says $9.3 trillion. And today on Capitol Hill, some Republicans called your budget, with all the spending on health care, education and environment, the most irresponsible budget in American history.

Isn't that kind of debt exactly what you were talking about when you said passing on our problems to the next generation?

Side note: If Obama's budgets are put in place, America will reach the point where it is paying more each year on the interest to the national debt than it is paying for national defense. Talk about throwing money away. We simply can't keep borrowing and borrowing.

Obama began his response to the question by saying, "First of all, 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. That would be point number one."

Excuse me... but the last several budgets that were passed were voted on by a Democrat-led House and a Democrat-led Senate. What you inherited was the result of a Republican president and Democrats in Congress, so at least be honest with the American people.

Obama then goes on to compare his deficit numbers with those of the CBO:

Where the dispute comes in is what happens in a whole bunch of out years. And the main difference between the budget that we presented and the budget that came out of Congressional Budget Office is assumptions about growth.

They're assuming a growth rate of 2.2. We're assuming a growth rate of 2.6. Those small differences end up adding up to a lot of money. Our assumptions are perfectly consistent with what blue chip forecasters out there are saying.

The main point I'd like to make here is, "Who cares if Obama's numbers turn out better than CBO's!!!" Obama's numbers still lead to $7 trillion in additional debt.

I could go on and on regarding what Obama said and what it means for the country, but let me tie two more items together. First, it's this quote from Obama:

Here's what I do know: If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow 2.6 percent; we won't grow 2.2 percent. We won't grow.

The next statement is this one:

And there's a interesting reason why some of these critics haven't put out their own budget. I mean, we haven't seen an alternative budget out of them.

The first quote is a shameless attempt by Obama to trick the American people into accepting his socialist agenda. Make no mistake... America will come out of this recession. The question is, "How will it look when it does come out?" We will have growth, and for Obama to say that the only way to grow is to spend, spend, spend, and tax, tax, tax is completely insane.

Here's a proposal. What if we totaled up the price Obama wants to spend on health care, infrastructure, education, science and technology, etc. and didn't spend it but rather gave it back to the people in the form of tax cuts. Does anyone, Republican or Democrat, think that more money in the hands of each and every American citizen would lead to zero growth? I don't think so.

And so, we have the second statement where Obama is actually right. We haven't seen an alternative plan, and we need one. If the American people only hear from Obama, then he is the only one they will listen to.

As I just mentioned, reducing the power and scope of government and returning that money to the people would result in massive growth. People could hire other people. People could save for college. People could purchase goods and services. They could do all of this according to their own personal agenda and philosophy... and not be subject to the social engineering being put forth by the Obama administration.