Published: May 12, 2009 02:13 pm      

Gushing red ink — 05/13/09

Obama's actions do not match his words about cutting deficit

When it comes to reducing the federal deficit, President Barack Obama’s actions fall far, far short of matching his words.

The new president recently told his Cabinet: “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter ... We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration, or the next generation.”

Those words come after eight years of irresponsible spending during the administration of President George W. Bush, which believed deficits really didn’t matter. For those who us who believe that bringing spending in line with revenue does matter, Obama’s words were most welcome. However, Obama’s actions tell a different story.

New White House forecasts show a deficit of $1.8 trillion this year — almost four times the previous record set by President Bush — and $1.3 trillion next. The federal government now borrows a whopping 46 cents of every $1 it spends.

The White House forecasts show that, even assuming a fully recovered economy, the deficits will not dip below $500 billion a year for the next decade. In short, despite all of his assuring words, President Obama plans on passing the problem of the deficit to the next president.

The White House contends big spending — the Wall Street bailout, the stimulus package — is a necessary but temporary evil to jump-start the country out of recession. Maybe so, but there’s nothing in his budgets or his economic policy speeches to indicate a serious assault on the deficit once the current crisis passes. What additional revenues there are in his budget are earmarked to offset the cost of his health-care reforms, not deficit reduction.

Nevertheless, expect President Obama to boast in future years about cutting the deficit. If so, that would be a tactic lifted from his predecessor. After compiling record deficits for much of his eight years in office, President George W. Bush bragged when the size of the deficits began to decline. With the type of deficit he is projecting for this year, it should be easy for President Obama to reduce the deficit in future years — and brag about it as a sign of being fiscally responsible.

To be fair, President Obama recently sent to Congress a proposal to either eliminate or reduce spending for 121 programs for a savings of $17 billion. If that sound like a lot, it represents one-half of one percent of next year’s projected $3.4 trillion in federal spending. And his proposal immediately ran into a storm of opposition on Capitol Hill, mostly from his own Democrats trying to protect their pet projects.

Maybe deficits really do matter to Obama but his proposals sure don’t indicate that.