RUTHFULLY YOURS

Based on the universally lousy reception to the budget offered yesterday, the President had an emergency press conference this morning to deflect the criticism and try to take control of the narrative. He was unsuccessful.  One would wonder why the White House Press corps would rush the President out on the national stage unprepared to offer anything new to meet that goal of controlling the budget message.

Relying on nothing but the typical “talking points.” the President’s budget argument was feeble and in many cases, directly contrary to previous statements or documents offered by the administration. In other words, the President told the President he lied.

He said that he alone cannot make decisions to reform the significant portions of the federal budget — namely, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Of course he did not answer as to why he didn’t even make a proposal to cut those entitlements for the Congress to rely on, making excuses

“If you look at the history of how these deals get done, typically it’s not because there’s an ‘Obama plan’ out there….It’s because Democrats and Republicans are both committed to tackling this issue in a serious way… We’re going to be in discussions over the next several months. I mean, this is going to be a negotiation process.”

Actually based on his first crack at the budget which adds eight dollars in taxes to every one dollar cut out of the budget, its going to be less of a negotiation and more of a war. But at least for today, the President started with a smile. He confessed happiness  that Republicans have criticized him for avoiding entitlement reform.

“I think it is significant progress that there is interest on all sides on those issues,” he said. Earlier Republican rhetoric, he said, made it sound as if the deficit could be reduced “if we just slash deeper on education or other provisions in domestic spending….Nobody’s more mindful than me that entitlements are going to be a key part of this issue”

The President was asked about the lack of entitlement reform many times during the press conference
Under that smile, the President was speaking out of both sides of his progressive mouth. He said that he used the Debt Commission as a “framework for discussion.” But the Debt Commission called for massive entitlement cuts, the President’s plan had none.

Obama argued that “symbolic cuts” would do great damage to the economy an empty talking point inferring that his cuts were legit, but the cuts coming from the GOP were nothing but symbolic.

Perhaps the biggest lie was his claim that the by the middle of the decade this budget does not add to the deficit:

On the budget, what my budget does is to put forward some tough choices, some significant spending cuts so that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues.

These numbers come directly from the president’s budget document (page 171) in each year there is a projected deficit (maybe the president was talking about a decade not covered in his budget).

Year	Deficit (Billions)
2010	-1293
2011	-1645
2012	-1101
2013	-768
2014	-645
2015	-607
2016	-649
2017	-627
2018	-619
2019	-681
2020	-735
2021	-774

The President used his now trite credit card analogy:

We will not be adding more to the national debt. It’s — so, to use a — sort of, an analogy that families are familiar with, we’re not going to be running up the credit card anymore.

In his own budget proposal, using his own numbers we see that the credit card is being “run up.” This fiscal year shows $3.8 trillion in spending, during the entire ten year budget there is $46 trillion in spending, $8.7 trillion of it is new spending. I don’t care how big your budget it, $8.7 trillion in new spending is definitely “running up the credit card.”

The President also claimed that “We Will Not Be Adding More To The National Debt.” Again using the President’s own numbers (this time Page 203). The total national debt surpassed $13 trillion in 2010. In other words it took 234 years from 1776 to 2010 for this nation to rack up $13 trillion in debt. From 234 years to eleven years…by 2021 our debt will be over $26 trillion

Actual 2010: 13,529
2011 Estimate:              15,476
2012 Estimate:              16,654
2013 Estimate:              17,750
2014 Estimate:              18,761
2015 Estimate:              19,776
2016 Estimate:              20,825
2017 Estimate:              21,867
2018 Estimate:              22,924
2019 Estimate:              24,023
2020 Estimate:              25,165
2021 Estimate: 26,346

Our country is quickly approaching financial disaster. This past November voters were united in sending a message to our leaders…reduce this debt before its too late. The United States does not have a revenue problem…it has a spending problem. The President didn’t hear the message and is lying to cover-up the truth about his budget, but don’t believe me that the President is lying, believe the President.