Saturday, August 22, 2009

But How Does it Affect Obama?

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration expects the federal deficit over the next decade to be $2 trillion bigger than previously estimated, White House officials said Friday, a setback for a president already facing a Congress and public wary over spending."

Yeah, poor Obama. You know who else this is a setback for? Us! The taxpayers! I know, the really important thing is his Oneness's great project to remake America, but shouldn't the people of America also get a little play in the story? It really is all about Obama. We have gone from being one of the least indebted nations in the industrialized world to one of the most.

There is some good news. The bailouts are coming in at about $200 billion less than was expected (that is, the part that Bush was supposedly responsible for), but revenues are also less than expected.

Mark Steyn, the world's best educated non-college graduate, points out the key fact: the countries that followed our advice and example of passing a big stimulus package are the ones that are still in recession. Fort the countries that ignored us--France, Germany, Brazil--the recession is already over. Causal? You decide. It could be that the countries that passed big stimulus packages were the ones that faced worse economic conditions (though the bank bailout was far smaller in the US than it was in Germany and almost all the other big countries), but it could also be that a huge run up in public debt makes people, you know, nervous about spending and investing?

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