Recent Obamanations

A recent Obama speech made me nauseous. In the speech he provided a few new obamanational quotes:

We've had to take emergency measures to prevent the recession from becoming another depression....But the emergency measures have added about $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. As a result, even as we take these necessary steps in the short term, we have an obligation to future generations to address our long-term, structural deficits, which threaten to hobble our economy and leave our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt.

He guess he recognizes what he is doing to future generations, but I would rather he act than talk. His next obamanation makes me think he has no intention of acting in a meaningful way.

We've been scouring the budget, line by line, identifying more than $20 billion in savings this year alone.

Twenty billion dollars out of a $3.5 TRILLION budget? That is a whopping .5% reduction. It is finding a 50 cent savings for every $100 you bring home. It is insignificant and a simply an absurd statement to make.

I kept my promise to pass a health reform bill without adding a dime to the deficit. In fact, by attacking waste and fraud and promoting better care, reform is expected to bring down our deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next two decades.

Okay, it brings down the deficit if :

• you believe we will experience extremely optimistic economic conditions despite his other growth-killing initiatives (such as finance reform)
• you forget all the hidden, off-the-books costs not considered in the financial impacts
• medical service providers agree to accept less money for their services
• Murphy's Law is a myth

Then he made statements about the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, who have the unenviable task of reducing the deficit and the national debt.

It's important that we not restrict the review or the recommendations that this commission comes up with in any way. Everything has to be on the table. And I just met briefly with the commission and said the same thing to them. Of course, this means that all of you, our friends in the media, will ask me and others once a week or once a day about what we’re willing to rule out or rule in when it comes to the recommendations of the commission. That's an old Washington game and it's one that has made it all but impossible in the past for people to sit down and have an honest discussion about putting our country on a more secure fiscal footing.

So I want to deliver this message today: We're not playing that game. I'm not going to say what's in. I'm not going to say what's out. I want this commission to be free to do its work.

Let me interpret for you. He said that when the commission recommends stiff tax increases, he can renounce his pledge not to raise taxes on households earning less than $250,000 a year. I am having a more difficult time respecting the office.