Back to the State of the Union speech. The President explained that the current deficit is a result of “not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program.” The solution?
More:
“…we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65% cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts…We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.”
So…more tax cuts and more benefits. Got it.
And those two wars? Prior to November 2008, it was permissible for congress to simply demand that “we bring our troops home now,” regardless of consequence. The reason it was permissible was because it would have been very easy for congress to blame an inept administration for “abandoning what it couldn’t finish” for foreign policy purposes, while at the same time taking credit domestically for bringing the troops home.
Now that it wouldn’t be so easy to separate the blame from the credit, simply bringing the troops home—without regard for consequence—is no longer an option. Which is too bad, because if tax cuts, “not paying for two wars,” and an expensive prescription drug program were really what caused the current administration to inherit a budget deficit, then those who claimed themselves capable of doing “what was necessary” and not just doing “what was popular” have decided that at least two of the three causes of the deficit won’t be going away until the blame can be placed elsewhere.
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