Living Within One's Means

 Fiddling While Rome Burns

Columnists like Mark Steyn have been repeatedly calling attention to the mammoth threat of the US deficit.  It was bad under Bush's tenure (the compassionate conservative, you remember); it is not immeasurably worse under Obama's tenure.  It has been the most signal "accomplishment" of his four profligate years in the White House.  The United States is at the tipping point; it will likely never recover.

Here's a summary of the problem, from The Weekly Standard:

In the wake of the Treasury Department’s newly released summary of federal spending for 2012, it’s now possible to detail just how profligate the Obama years have been.  Here’s the upshot:  Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

Of course the numbers are much bigger than that of the average household.

Let’s take a look at the scorecard, based on official government figures.  In fiscal year 2012 (which ended on September 30), the federal government acquired $2.449 trillion in tax revenue and other receipts.  It spent $3.538 trillion — 44 percent more than it had available to spend.  The resulting deficit was $1.089 trillion.

There is a similar scorecard for fiscal years 2009-11.

So in all, under Obama, the federal government has acquired $6.846 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts, and it has spent $10.711 trillion — 56 percent more than it has had available to spend. 

But it gets worse.  The biggest spending increase has yet to come--from legislation already passed by Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress and Senate.

Moreover, Obama has amassed this historic record of fiscal profligacy even before his centerpiece legislation has really taken effect.  If it’s not repealed first, the colossally expensive Obamacare is poised to present grave new challenges to our fiscal solvency — and to our liberty — once it would become a reality on these shores in early 2014.  

The quality of the spend is also very poor.  In the 2011 fiscal tax year, the Federal Government took in $2.303 trillion in tax revenue; it paid out $1.03 trillion on 83 means tested Federal welfare programmes. Forty five percent of tax revenue going out in welfare programmes. As we all know, welfare programmes create a culture of dependency which is almost impossible to eradicate.  The demands and expectations usually go one way--upwards.

Here is a YouTube clip summarising just how bad things are.




If Mitt Romney is elected, he has a huge challenge.  His biggest will be persuading the country to go along with necessary austerities.  If Obama is re-elected the eventual end of America as a super-power would be inevitable. Even lots of Democrats understand this.  But the radical wing of the party is now in control--and Obama has been one of the most radical of all.  His one saving grace is that he has been politically so incompetent as a legislator and working with Congress.