Home » Opinion » Editorials
June 25. 2012 7:47PM
'Pay Later Barack': Picking up Obama's tab
No one should be surprised that the Obama campaign refused to pay the cost of police protection for the President's Durham campaign stop on Monday. The entire Obama administration can be summed up in these five words: Obama gives speech, we pay.
Since when has this President taken personal responsibility for his actions, their effects or their costs? Every American ought to be able to see by now the pattern that he has repeated since he took office:
1. Give sweeping speech proclaiming grand but vague vision.
2. Lowball the real cost of executing that vision and pay for much of it with debt.
3. If policies are enacted and then generate unintended consequences, blame the results on the previous administration.
4. If policy costs are shown to be more than the administration predicted, blame private sector “greed” and political obstruction.
The stimulus bill was supposed to cost $787 billion. The Congressional Budget Office calculated late last year that the bill will increase the federal deficit by $831 billion over 10 years. Obamacare was supposed to cost less than $1 trillion. But Obama and Democrats in Congress got to that figure by cooking the books. For example, the law raised Medicaid payments to doctors but simply did not fund those payments after 2014. It expanded Medicaid eligibility, part of which states have to fund themselves. And of course individuals have to buy insurance if they don't have it now, and insurers have to pay for the costs of mandated coverage such as insuring “children” until age 26.
Obama loves the idea of replacing coal and oil power with wind and solar power. So he directs billions of dollars in taxpayer money to wind and solar projects. Solyndra, which went bankrupt after the Obama administration gave it $535 million in loan guarantees, was just one of these projects we were forced to subsidize.
Obama likes trains. So he committed $8 billion in debt-financed stimulus funding to trains, and the Democratic Congress added another $2.5 billion.
The President really enjoys spending money on things he thinks will make our lives better. He just doesn't like paying for it. He expects others (mostly our children) to do that at some undefined point in the future.
Obama sets the grand vision (which, conveniently, doles out money to political constituencies he favors) and lets others figure out how to pay for it later. That's why the budget he proposed this year grows the federal debt from $15.7 trillion this year to $25 trillion a decade later. Sticking the taxpayers of Durham with a $20,000 bill for his campaign speech is just par for the course with this guy. If only the American taxpayer, like Durham, had an anonymous donor to step in and pick up the tab.
Since when has this President taken personal responsibility for his actions, their effects or their costs? Every American ought to be able to see by now the pattern that he has repeated since he took office:
1. Give sweeping speech proclaiming grand but vague vision.
2. Lowball the real cost of executing that vision and pay for much of it with debt.
3. If policies are enacted and then generate unintended consequences, blame the results on the previous administration.
4. If policy costs are shown to be more than the administration predicted, blame private sector “greed” and political obstruction.
The stimulus bill was supposed to cost $787 billion. The Congressional Budget Office calculated late last year that the bill will increase the federal deficit by $831 billion over 10 years. Obamacare was supposed to cost less than $1 trillion. But Obama and Democrats in Congress got to that figure by cooking the books. For example, the law raised Medicaid payments to doctors but simply did not fund those payments after 2014. It expanded Medicaid eligibility, part of which states have to fund themselves. And of course individuals have to buy insurance if they don't have it now, and insurers have to pay for the costs of mandated coverage such as insuring “children” until age 26.
Obama loves the idea of replacing coal and oil power with wind and solar power. So he directs billions of dollars in taxpayer money to wind and solar projects. Solyndra, which went bankrupt after the Obama administration gave it $535 million in loan guarantees, was just one of these projects we were forced to subsidize.
Obama likes trains. So he committed $8 billion in debt-financed stimulus funding to trains, and the Democratic Congress added another $2.5 billion.
The President really enjoys spending money on things he thinks will make our lives better. He just doesn't like paying for it. He expects others (mostly our children) to do that at some undefined point in the future.
Obama sets the grand vision (which, conveniently, doles out money to political constituencies he favors) and lets others figure out how to pay for it later. That's why the budget he proposed this year grows the federal debt from $15.7 trillion this year to $25 trillion a decade later. Sticking the taxpayers of Durham with a $20,000 bill for his campaign speech is just par for the course with this guy. If only the American taxpayer, like Durham, had an anonymous donor to step in and pick up the tab.
- Voter restrictions: Who will govern us? - 26
- School board papers: Beaudry gets left behind - 1
- Data overreach Are programs really justified? The weak case for PRISM. - 11
- A Medicaid reduction? That is not likely - 8
- Border security? Maybe, some day, perhaps. Or not - 35
- Priority profs: University system tops HHS - 5
- Recognizing father: Not PC, but still OK - 1
- Closing Hanover St.: Not a 'free market' move - 6
- Step into the past: Discover old NH this weekend - 0
Tax credit math: Who owns your money?
READER COMMENTS: 1- Santos drives in three as Curve beat Fisher Cats in 10 - 0
- Large billboards grabbing attention on Route 101 in Epping - 1
- Pearl Street lot proposal involves student housing in Manchester - 0
- Manchester VFW posts fights to survive without poker cash - 0
- Surveillance led NSA to 50 terror 'events' - 0
- One arrested as Concord gun-control rally gets rowdy - 13
- Celtics, Clippers call off Doc deal - 0
- High school football is in the air as CHad practice opens - 0
- Agencies to offer summer food service to Derry children in need - 0
LeBron, Heat edge Spurs in OT, force Game 7
READER COMMENTS: 0
Sorry, no question available



