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The Obama Watch
"We Are Out of Money"
President Barack Obama handed his political opponents a bludgeon the size of Thor's hammer Saturday.
In a story played up by the Drudge Report but virtually ignored by the New York Times and Washington Post, C-SPAN's Steve Scully pointed to the massive financial obligations taken on by his administration and to America's generally lousy financial forecast. He asked Obama, "At what point do we run out of money?" "Well…" the U.S. president began with his practiced nod to the unhurried, unflappable style of Ronald Reagan.
Then he said it: "We are out of money now." He tried that classic Obama workaround, essentially conceding the opposition's point then sidestepping it to advance his own vision. "We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far," he said. But just wait.
Obama pegged "health care inflation" as America's long-term fiscal problem. One unsavory option for how to deal with this problem, he said, "is to just do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now."
He tried to make the case for why that would be the wrong option but, by that point, nobody who wasn't already committed to his vision of government managed, mandated, rationed health care was paying much attention. To the average not terribly ideological voter, the gravity of what Obama admitted will displace airy fairy notions about the fiercely urgent need for reform now.
"We are out of money," Obama said, apparently of his own free will. He also said that the government has had to spend "a lot of money" to "salvage our financial system," and to "deal with the auto companies." He admitted that that the U.S. is in the midst of a "huge recession," which "drains tax revenue" from federal and state coffers and puts "more pressure on governments" to provide vital services with fewer resources.
The president might write these off, collectively, as a "short-term problem," but it's pretty hard to admit all these things and then convince Americans they should double down. Obama is requesting over $600 billion in his budget for what the White House bills as simply a "down payment" on his grander scheme of universal coverage.
Not to beat a dead horse, but that's over $600 billion that the U.S. government doesn't have on hand to spend. It can either borrow the money and shift the bill, with interest, onto future, heavily leveraged generations, or it can raise taxes to pay the bill. Practically, there will be a mix of both. It's telling that Obama and the congressional leadership both want more funds for IRS enforcement so that the tax collectors can really do their job.
All kinds of people are going to be made unhappy by the government push for more funds, and not just the usual suspects. Over this Memorial Day weekend, Oregon's Democratic Senator Ron Wyden faced negative union bought ads over his proposal to tax health care benefits -- their own member's hard negotiated benefits, in other words -- to help finance the federal plan.
When Republicans decide to come out swinging against these plans -- and they will; they don't have many other options -- they will have the most clear, concise, bullet proofed slogan of all time at their disposal. "We are out of money," they can say, so Obama wants to take yours.
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Pingback| 5.26.09 @ 7:11AM
The American Spectator : "We Are Out of Money" | Money Blog : 10 Dollars : Money Arti links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Taniwha| 5.26.09 @ 7:59AM
Doesn't anyone moderate this board? Isn't there ANY minimum intelligence standard that can be enforced?
Just sayin.
Darin| 5.26.09 @ 8:25AM
IGNORE RUDE POSTINGS.
That's right, ignore them. Ignore any other comments that resort to name-calling, finger-pointing, blame-assigning, and other rude behavior. If someone has something worthwhile to say and can say it in a respectful manner, please do so. If someone can't act in a civilized manner, ignore them completely. Hopefully a moderator of the site will delete their remarks so useful interaction can occur.
David Mathews,
If you are able to present your positions in a respectful manner, please do so. The last thing I want is for anyone to be "shut down." We should be able to respect another's opinion even if we don't agree. If you find you cannot disagree in a civil manner, find somewhere else to vent.
Roy| 5.26.09 @ 8:40AM
A trillion here and a trillion there, pretty soon you're talking about fake money.
Trotter| 5.26.09 @ 9:24AM
"We are out of money," Obama said, apparently of his own free will. He also said that the government has had to spend "a lot of money" to "salvage our financial system," and to "deal with the auto companies."
And yet, not a single dime of this "a lot of money" has actually helped out what it was intended to help. At some point, even the blind sycophants in the media are going to have to ask the chosen one where it all went and why should we now believe you.
grzmlyk| 5.26.09 @ 9:36AM
Darin, you are wise. What you say is true. It's just very hard to walk past a pinata and not take a whack!
However, it looks like someone took out the trash this morning. I don't see the offending piece of offal anymore.
Liberals are like medieval doctors - they want to bleed the patient (our economy) in order to make it better. And if 2 or 3 pints doesn't do the trick, why, just bleed 'em again!
And they think they're the forward thinkers! They who stock their economic doctor's bags with leeches! What's next? Human sacrifices? Oops. Forgot about Scooter Libby.
There is no reasoning with a liberal. Facts, logic and empirical evidence are their enemies. You have just as good a chance of getting them to see truth as you do of building a nuclear reactor out of popsicle sticks.
GQpresident| 5.26.09 @ 9:37AM
Obamessiah let the cat out of the bag, didn't he?
Is any one else nervous with this dude at the wheel, or is it just me?
Deborah D| 5.26.09 @ 10:07AM
Wow! I thought it was Biden who had problems with speaking out of school. Every now and then a little truth slips out of The One's lips. If he weren't so consumed with amassing and consolidating his power, he might actually look to how Reagan got us out of Carter's mess. But, it's the Dems who only get us deeper in the muck, and that's when Americans finally wise up to realize that they have no business running the country.
Skep41| 5.26.09 @ 10:11AM
If Obama says something and the press doesnt report it, did he say it? The majority of the country are still wrapped in their cozy Obama-fog and wont be roused by any number of statements like this. Pelosi can lie like a rug. Reid can snivel and prevaricate from dawn til dusk but it doesnt matter. You see, these guys have 'empathy'. They care. And until the Soviet Union-style crash thats coming happens Barry's ratings will stay high. Us right-wing crackpots better get used to it.
Grzmlyk| 5.26.09 @ 10:29AM
Hey GQ:
Nervous? I'm terrified. It's like turning over your car keys to a drunken kindergartner with a chip on his shoulder. Who still isn't potty trained.
He's oblivious of the fact that the car is careening all over a steep mountain road. And since there are no guardrails anymore (i.e., the rule of law), a steep plunge, followed by a sickening thud, is imminent. No doubt about it.
Seriously, I get nauseated just thinking about the rotten fruit his first few months alone will bear. The inmates are running the asylum.
GB| 5.26.09 @ 10:36AM
Sorry to say it won't matter. The dems will do "health care" anyway. The repubs are to stupid and gutless to stop them and the people it seems, really don't care. I hate to sound so cynical but how did someone as big a zero as O get elected. It's going to happen again.
Old Texican| 5.26.09 @ 10:43AM
GQ
Heh! Check my comment on the Corporate Sellout article today.
GRZMlyk
What you said! Ditto!
Grzmlyk| 5.26.09 @ 10:50AM
GB: Tragically, you are right. It's a sad day when, no matter how many grass-roots conservatives are howling that they've run out of patience with RINOs, Republicans in DC continue to their backs on them in favor of shoring up power and basking in the praise of the NY Times . After the McCain debacle, I can only conclude that they are impervious to learning.
Now with Sotomayor's nomination, we'll see the Repbublicans make a couple of pro forma noises and then fold like a cheap suitcase.
Oh well: Our new poster boy for Republicanism, that rock of conservative values Colin Powell, should be pleased.
He won't rest until there's not a dime's bit of difference between Repubs and Dems.
He's approaching Nirvana at warp speed.
dcd| 5.26.09 @ 12:19PM
"When Republicans decide to come out swinging against these plans"
Do republicans have sufficient credibility left in this area to be persuasive?
Republicans can claim they won't spend money as fast; unles they really want to or there is a voting block that they need.
John Knox| 5.26.09 @ 12:32PM
This is utter, utter madness. Not to be trite (I know everyone is saying this), but when an individual citizen is gazillions of dollars in he hole, only a COMPLETE MADMAN would counsel him to do anything other than get out of debt before making any more big purchases.
And yet... this guy... THIS GUY... who sits in the chair of George Washington is spending like a drunken sailor with someone else's charge card.
I say it again: this is utter madness. These United States are doomed. Doomed. Doomed.
John Knox| 5.26.09 @ 12:33PM
Did I mention that we're doomed? Good grief...
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Hal| 5.26.09 @ 12:51PM
It does surprise me that this news was buried by the media. It's an admission that the dollar is toast. But I guess with all the international threats going on the dollar still looks strong and the US is being looked to to help with North Korea and Iran.
I thought at market open today that the dollar would be toast and was watching with the widget ExactPrice to see if gold would run up but it didn't. Actually lost a few dollars but is staying steady.
I think it looks to me like there is still some major indecision in the markets and fear of inflation. This week is going to be interesting.
JoeJazz2000| 5.26.09 @ 1:02PM
Where's Dave. It looks like he was here; there are Cheeto crumbs in the earlier posts...
Alan Brooks| 5.26.09 @ 1:14PM
"opponents"? you are enemies.
we cons must be more exact; don't call Kervorkian a "doctor'.
Old Texican| 5.26.09 @ 1:26PM
John Knox
I've got to laugh to keep from crying. (laugh)
We are NOT doomed!
The wheels WILL come off this truck to hell.
I do hope you will check my comment in "Corporate Sellout" here today.
Pingback| 5.26.09 @ 2:14PM
“We Are Out of Money” « Depravity links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Stan Redmond| 5.26.09 @ 2:58PM
The whole problem with Obama's "we're out of money" quote is this. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEVER HAD ANY MONEY. They have to tax it from productive taxpayers. Obama is lamenting that he can't find acceptable ways to steal more money for productive citizens.
NavyBrat| 5.26.09 @ 3:33PM
"We're out of money." So what's his solution? Print more, of course. And it's not like this isn't part of the plan for the Marxist Obamanchurian candidate. This is from one of the original commie firebrand's playbook:
"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of inflation & taxation."...Lenin
Tell me how this is ANY different from what's going on right now with the massive printing of worthless money & the ever increasing tax burdens heaped on American consumers. Short answer: "IT'S NOT!!!"
Helen Donnelly| 5.26.09 @ 3:37PM
Dear Davie Mathews,
How are things on your planet? Are you deprived of oxygen, and thus your irresponsible, immature drivel? And, pray tell, if the American Spectator serves the dregs of American civilization, why do you live in here everyday? Just asking.....
Helen Donnelly| 5.26.09 @ 3:59PM
Dear Davie,
Whatever.... Guess what - there are still PLENTY of conservative Republicans out here, my dear. You may like to thing you live in "Post-Republican America", but we are not going anywhere, and will still be standing after your socialist party implodes on it's own. Hopefully, there will still be a viable America to live in after that happens.
God Bless.
LarryG| 5.26.09 @ 4:08PM
So, just who is this Mathews punk? Is he related to the Maher punk? I have a parrot with more sense.
Gill O'Teen| 5.26.09 @ 4:13PM
Roy @ 8:40AM
“A trillion here and a trillion there, pretty soon you're talking about fake money.”
Nicely put!
And it hasn’t even hit the fan yet. Cap & Trade, obumah-care, more taxes on everything, escalating gas and utility costs, runaway inflation, the list goes on.
How will obumassiah spread the wealth around when there isn’t any left? Consider, that in a Drudge Report article, merry-land imposed a tax on millionaires for tax year 2008, but this year something like a third of the millionaires who filed as such last year either left that state to avoid its high taxes or have reduced their incomes either through market losses or deliberately in order to avoid stepping up and being joke biden patriotic. The dumbocrats still don’t understand what happened to their unrealized riches.
Richard Baker| 5.26.09 @ 4:24PM
What has always amazed me about liberals is that they advocate destructive schemes that, I guess, they seem to think will not affect them. Punching a hole in one's lifeboat isn't exactly a rational view of the world.
Daisy| 5.26.09 @ 5:32PM
Baker, I wouldn't care if the libs punched a hole in the lifeboat if I weren't sitting in it, too! Dumb democrats.
Caitlin| 5.26.09 @ 5:51PM
And with how effective the efforts to "salvage our financial system," and to "deal with the auto companies." were. He thinks we'll just be willing to let him try again with Health care? Get something right before you start asking for more money!
RM| 5.26.09 @ 5:55PM
His comment is just a prelude to the reasons we need to raise taxes sky high. For us not to "pay down the debt" and not to "pay for health care" is not "sustainable," so we all will need to "make sacrifices" and "chip in" and "do our part" to pay.
He did not hand anyone a cudgel, he's just softening the ground for the massive tax
increases coming in 2010 and 2011. (Right after the destruction of private health care and the US energy industry.)
Oh, and no one over 55 will get any kind of (expensive) life-sustaining health care either - just another way to "pitch in."
Richard Baker| 5.26.09 @ 6:00PM
To Daisy:
Agree with your thought on lifeboats. It is amazing what people will do to avoid thought, isn't it?
Pingback| 5.26.09 @ 6:59PM
Twitted by krisfehr13 links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jeff Nordlander| 5.26.09 @ 7:59PM
Frankly, I can no longer take anything written on this site seriously. The partisan nature of these articles makes my eyes bleed. George Bush ran hundred billion dollar deficits routinely while he was in office, during an era of economic boom. That was a horribly iiresponsible thing to do. I never once read an article bemoaning his fiscal irresponsibility until 2008-on. Now, Obama takes office during the greatest recession since the 1930's and he engages in the proper course of action; namely deficit spending. Which, according to most economists was the only way to avert a catastrophic economic meltdown and suddenly TAS has become the prophet of fiscal responsibility. I dont buy it and no one outside of the GOP echo chamber buys it. Enjoy the political wilderness.
Richard Baker| 5.26.09 @ 8:33PM
Mr. Nordlander:
I guess you weren't listening to the conservatives raising absolute Holy Hell about the stupidity of Federal spending under 43. The "Republicans" who supported this stupidity demanded a candidate like McCain. You were listening to McCain, Snowe, Collins, and the other so-called "blue blood" Republicans. Personally, I think that the GOP is going to go the way of the Whig Party which actually caused the formation of the GOP.
As to deficit spending, Obama has created more debt in 100+ days than every President from Washington to Bush 43. If you think that you and your descendants aren't going to be dragged under by this DC nonsense then by all means pay more taxes if you wish to make yourself completely happy. This is not happening in some splendid political isolation. You are a citizen who will be suffering along with the rest of us because too many "Americans" want something for nothing. For further guidance, read "On Democracy" by Alexis de Toqueville.
Smitty| 5.26.09 @ 9:00PM
Nordlander, you're out of your mind. Conservatives have been screaming bloody murder over George W's spending for years. Even at that, Bush was never the fascist liberal spending whore that Obama is. Enjoy your stupidity.
Alan Brooks| 5.26.09 @ 9:37PM
I like IKE
MarkJ| 5.26.09 @ 10:14PM
"It's telling that Obama and the congressional leadership both want more funds for IRS enforcement so that the tax collectors can really do their job."
Question: Given current trends, what might be "mandatory office attire" for IRS workers in 2011?
Answer: Bullet-proof vests.
Roy| 5.26.09 @ 10:52PM
So Bush was wrong to run hundred billion dollar deficits(while fighting a war after the worst terrorist attack in history), but Obama is right to run trillion dollar deficits.
Yep, that famed liberal attachment to reason and logic will get you every time.
ds80| 5.26.09 @ 10:54PM
Jeff Nordlander's answer to the current financial crisis is typically Liberal:
Debt bubble? No problem: more debt!
Enjoy your soup line Jeff.
PS: not to worry - bleeding eyes is an expected Liberal reaction to seeing Truth.
Smitty| 5.26.09 @ 11:07PM
That's a good one! Democrats want money to beef up IRS enforcement--try paying your own taxes first, you thievin' ba$tards!
Jeff Nordlander| 5.27.09 @ 12:01AM
Conservatives were not screaming about Bush 43's fiscal policies. That is an absolute lie. In addition, I have faithfully read this publication along with the National Review and hardly qualify as a liberal. I would just like to see Republicans take responsibility for the current mess instead of reflexively opposing every Obama initiative as the all evil SOCIALISM.
Smitty| 5.27.09 @ 12:23AM
You're nuts; a liar, too. I've read many articles at AmSpec castigating Bush for his profligate spending. Doug Bandow is still pissed off at the Repubs. Stuff your BS. You defending Obama's socialism?
Norman| 5.27.09 @ 2:52AM
Mr. Nordlander,
You are simply incorrect. We conservatives started screaming about Bush's profligacy during his first term. This was not a marginal issue, and every serious conservative outlet--including AmSpec--expended millions of pixels on the issue.
Regards,
Norman
William| 5.27.09 @ 3:10AM
Bush Mk I and Bush Mk II were both frauds.
Utopian, globalist liberals who accomplished THOSE goals methodcally, while undermining or ignoring everything social conservatives worked for since the days of Goldwater.
Nations and parties come and go. Faith family and hard work are forever. Send the GOP to the elephants' graveyard and start over. This time, no Skull and Bones, no Bohemian Grove. Freaks.
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acorn| 5.27.09 @ 5:07AM
it's all pap and a yard wide
does anyone have a hole i can get sick in?
Hopesome| 5.27.09 @ 6:36AM
I would rather know that no money was available than be told a lie. It would mean action.
So far congress and the like have sat on their butts enjoying the fruits of their labours and now we the 'joe public' are paying the price.
Babble (babel) so far has built many ivory towers with only a 'promise as the foundation' they failed in that promise.
LETS HOPE THE LORD STANDS BY HIS AMERICA
You sure do need him now not just the wealth you have made out of his name!
acorn| 5.27.09 @ 9:30AM
out of money indeed. what do we expect. america operates with 1/3 rd of the people working in the public sector, 1/3rd getting government assistance and/or not paying taxes. that doesn't leave too many normal people to pay the bills.
the american system doesn't work.
in the next few years things are going to get hairy.
Pingback| 5.27.09 @ 10:23AM
» By Odin’s Beard links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Daisy Cutter| 5.27.09 @ 12:52PM
Enjoy the wilderness, Mr. Nordlander?
If the people did not appreciate Bush 43 spending billions into deficit, how is it you think the people are going to appreciate the trillions by Obama?
And if you cannot abide by this site, why do you continue to post AFTER your "good-bye" statement???
Real conservatives have been at odds with the Republican establishment over the size of government ever since Bush 41 said "Read my lips", then gave us raised taxes!
A little history lesson here: that's why there was a conservative revolution in '94, after which the conservatives forced Pres. Clinton into balancing the budget and building a surplus. People have no desire to fork over any more of their monies to the government than they have to (just ask Geitner and associates), and they certainly don't want more "government services".
It wasn't until the "establishment moderates" (aka, RINO's) regained control that deficits again appeared.
The RINO's have become the Democrats' "Mini-Me": same basic policy direction, but a mere diminutive clone to the real. Finding no welcome mat before the Democrat socialist/fascist machine, they wish to keep a stranglehold on what little political base they can.
These men and women, however, have alienated true conservatives completely by basically telling us now what the Democrats have been telling us for years: Sit down, shut up, and we'll drive, because you obviously don't know anything.
The Republican leaders don't want to stand up for real fiscal responsibility, real liberty? Want to simply sell the country down the river at a slower rate? People are reaching the point where we've had enough of these "moderates" telling us we must lay down and accept the inevitable.
It is my hope that 2010 will see many of these so-called moderates swept aside. America is rapidly coming to the point where "moderates" must decide what will be the path of the country - tyranny, or freedom.
We cannot have freedom with a puppet for a president who pronoounces us out of money, then promises to spend us deeeper into the hole.
The lender is the master over the debtor.
acorn| 5.27.09 @ 1:57PM
nothing changes but the weather
it's always "wait till next year and we'll throw the bums out"...but not our bum. that's why incumbents win 90% of the time.
Richard Baker| 5.27.09 @ 3:08PM
Nordlander:
Richard Baker| 5.27.09 @ 3:17PM
Nordlander:
Obviously, you must have your eyes closed when you read. The conservatives have been raising Hell about government spending for 50+ years, I guess you couldn't notice that with your eyes shut and your ears plugged. What do you think the fight for the soul of the "Republican" party has been about? If you are dependent upon government and think that's ok, I am truly sorry for you. I would suggest that you go to the dictionary and read the definitions for the following words: tyranny, communism, socialism, fascism, liberty, freedom, and self-reliance.
I would also suggest that you read The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Education is your problem.
Pingback| 5.27.09 @ 6:14PM
Young Americans for Liberty » Blog Archive » I knew him when he was Barry links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 5.27.09 @ 8:30PM
To Print More:
Your message sounds like a synopsis of "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion". Calling Henry Ford and "The Dearborn Independent"!
Pingback| 5.28.09 @ 8:19PM
The Political Fish » We are out of money, so lets spend more…now! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Karjala ja sitten koko maailmanlaajuinen asiayhteys yhdessä hujauksessa. Tietenkin! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Presedent Obama said “We Are Out of Money now” « Wake up to the Bigger Picture links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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