My buddy Jeff sent along this URL, which looks at President Obama's plan to cut $100 million out of the Federal Budget.
You could take this as just one more right-wing attack on President Obama, and maybe it was intended that way. However, I take it as a very graphic demonstration of how hard the problem is. President George W Bush didn't show any strong skills in this area. Neither did the Republican controlled Congress, back before January 2007, when the Democrats got a chance to show a lack of strong skills in this area.
Regards — Cliff
And the most frightening part is that, compared to the recent authorization to spend another 1.7 TRILLION, this 100 million is just a rounding error. It's a joke about which nobody should be laughing.
ReplyDeleteThe last people to come swinging at the deficit with bucksaws and sledgehammers were Clinton and Gore, with their REGO (Reinventing Gov't) Initiative. They trimmed a ton of fat out of the DoD and some other departments. Along with the 1993 budget bill's effects (chronicled well in Woodward's The Agenda), they helped take the country from the staggering, growing debt they had inherited to a SURPLUS by the time all was said and done.
ReplyDeleteDoes some credit for all this perhaps belong to H. Ross Perot? Maybe. He of course didn't win in 1992, but he beat the deficit drum, again, again, and again and it grew into the fiber of the debate.
Could Fred "Master Medical" Doyle become Lowell's Ross Perot?