The State of the Union
We have seen the state of the union and apparently were not spending enough money to sustain it.
In his address to Congress, President Obama set to sound optimistic. Well, of course we want to be optimistic and upbeat about the direction of our country. Coming out of a great recession, we are still at a paradigm that we are not confident about the economic status of the country. Unemployment is still too high, housing prices are still depressed, and we still do not feel confident about expanding small businesses and taking on large debt. In short, we are still in the recession mindset.
We want our country to succeed. We want our president to succeed. For both to happen, we have to feel confident about the direction of the country. We know what our problems are -- we spend too much and we don't take in nearly enough money to cover what we feel is important. But we may differ on what we believe to be important, I'm sure we all agree that national security, education, and the health and well-being of all citizens are among our top priorities. So how can we provide all of these things for all citizens yet allow our citizens to keep more of their own money through lower taxation? We know what the answer is-we can't.
Under President Obama, the annual budget deficits have tripled. There are still those who are blaming President Bush, but Bush has been out of office for two years now. This is now Obama's to solve. Whether he wants to or not, whether he believes he is inherited these problems are not, they are his. Passing the buck is not going to take these problems away.
Yet when we look to for leadership as to how the deficit is going to be cut, we found no solutions in the president's address. Whether or not the administration believes that deficits matter or not, they are a main topic of discussion. Although the topic should be shifting to what we can do to create jobs in America, we somehow drift away again and again from this topic. The administration has discounted and admonished supply-side economics, yet they have proved that demand side economics is not working either. Last December, the administration commissioned a commission to find solutions on how we can reduce the budget deficit and the national debt. Whatever recommendations were made, they were not put into action and it does not sound like any of them will be. No, they all don't make sense, and I especially am not in favor of any recommendations to raise taxes. Yet there seems to be no willpower or political will to cut spending. No one wants to touch Social Security. Nobody wants to touch Medicare. The list goes on through all the social programs and entitlements. So what's going to happen? Probably nothing.
So is another year passes, we find ourselves pretty much in the same position that we were a year ago. Revenue is too low, spending is too high. Fiscal 2011 is going to be another record year for a budget deficit. But what did we expect when the president did not propose a budget and Congress did not pass a budget. Yet the administration is claiming victory because they believe that they are the ones who are including the wars in the annual deficits. I find this hard to believe because any federal spending can and has to be included in reporting of what the government has spent over the past year. It includes the wars. On the other hand, I thought I was told by the administration that the Iraq war was over. Is it or isn't it? I know there are still some soldiers over there just as there are American soldiers in South Korea. Is the Korean war over?
As important as where we are is, I believe what's more important is where we are going. So where are we going? Will we have any of these problems tackled or even addressed by the time January comes around next year? Or can we just dust off the old rhetoric and hope that we did not remember? Before we know it, we will be in another election cycle. The issues will be the same. A few names may be different. We will be hoping for a better future. We will be hoping for better times because we did not deliver when we had this opportunity again. We'll be throwing the bums out and hoping the new bums will get it right this time. Will have some new slogans to go along with the old ideas. Again.
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