JAMES FREEMAN: OBAMA’S OFFICIAL HISTORY
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732408170457821542240171394.html
The White House was widely ridiculed last year for inserting references to Barack Obama into the biographies of other presidents on the White House website. But lately Mr. Obama seems to be airbrushing himself out of his own biography.
The man who has held the nation’s highest elective office for four years is now acting as if somebody else has been presiding over record federal spending and deficits. Last week, as the federal government bumped up against its $16.4 trillion debt ceiling, Mr. Obama demanded the ability to borrow still more. The president spun it this way: “While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed.”
It’s an amazing statement, and not just because it’s hard to name even one spending reform over which Mr. Obama will negotiate in good faith. There’s also the fact that the debt ceiling debate is not really over whether the government will pay off the bonds it has already issued. Washington collects more than enough revenue to service its debt. The president wants more debt issuance to avoid sharp budget cuts and keep spending levels far above federal revenues.
Which brings us to Mr. Obama’s point that Congress should “pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed.” Congress can of course pass any spending bills it likes. But not a nickel is spent until someone signs those spending bills into law. Not only has Mr. Obama enacted every single destructive spending law of the past four years, beginning with his $800 billion-plus stimulus plan in 2009, but he has largely done so over the objections of the same congressional Republicans who are now resisting his desire for an unlimited debt-ceiling increase.
All sides agree that the federal government should pay its debts. And that even includes the ones the president racked up through the laws he enacted. Can Mr. Obama really get away with blaming congressional Republicans for his spending increases that they opposed?
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