President Obama lectured graduating college students about deficit spending living on credit.
“We’ve become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn’t reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us there; but hard work and smart ideas -quality products and wise investments. So we started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings.
Emphasis mine.
Lest the President forget about living on credit:
It’s hard to lecture about cutting corners and living on credit when you are mortgaging our grandchildren’s future.
Well, crap! I was working on just this essay, and you beat me to the punch!
However, as I note the differences between the White House and Congressional Budget Office projections, I’d point out here that that the White House has recently changed its FY2009 deficit estimate to $1.84 trillion. That’s right in line with the CBO estimates. Shouldn’t we, therefore, use the CBO estimates, as shown on the graph you posted, as the more probable to be accurate estimates?
Sharon, I think the President is right on the mark to lecture the students about credit, because the data shows that our youth have serious credit card debt problems.
Now to your main point, it is wise to use some perspective here.
Regarding the deficit, $1.85 trillion projected for fy2009 is about 13% of our current $14.5 trillion GDP. In 1946, just after WWII, we ran a 30% deficit!
Our national debt is about $11.3 trillion, which is about 78% of GDP. In 1946 we had a debt which was 120% of GDP.
So while our deficit and debt are both daunting, it has been much worse.
Obama is making a gamble, that with this current massive spending and tax reductions favoring the lower income folks, the stimulated economy will start to grow in a year, so that by the end of his term we can cut spending to reduce the deficit and begin to pay down the debt.
I don’t think the information you supplied has enough perspective to properly understand where we are from an historical perspective, as Obama attempts to deal with the mess he inherited.
Didn’t BO repudiate his own defecate spending in this article. I found this quite hilarious in light of the porkulus bill, new universal health care, and the confiscation of banks and industry. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
One does wonder how he says these things with a straight face.
Very interesting stats. Looks to me like stagflation is about 1-2 years away.
JohnC.:
Very interesting stats. Looks to me like stagflation is about 1-2 years away.
Maybe closer if BO gets his way to disincentivise wages. Big ticket items? What big ticket items. BO and the making of the USSA.
Why expect more of a political careerist who has little in the way of real-world experience?
A brief stint at playing at the law does not count.
A lifetime with a snout in the public trough should not be seen as a good thing,
We need to start to dump the time servers and start to elect more citizen-legislators rather than advancing the careers of political hacks who believe that legislation, litigation, and regulation provide all of the answers.
This goes for both parties.
Art, you are out of step with the majority of Americans who feel that under Obama we are on the right track.
I will agree, experience is an asset if the individual is well motivated. But look what Cheney’s experience led us into.
Given a choice, I feel more comfortable with less experience but well motivated, which Obama fits, with superb intelligence thrown into the mix of the man. Moreover, he has surrounded himself with experienced people, though I do wonder about the financial recovery advice he has been getting.
Other than that, I am quite well satisfied, immensely moreso than the eight years of gross mismanagement we have just endured. I would think that even you would agree with that!
Agree that you’re satisfied with a novice at the wheel? Yeah, I’d agree with that.
The only smart moves Obama has made so far are the ones where he continued George W.Bush’s policies.
Americans like to give their presidents the benefit of the doubt, and Obama has only been in office about 4 months. Let’s talk again at Christmas.