That’s Not Enough

May 7. 2009

President Obama: I cut the budget this much

President Barack Obama has trimmed $17 billion of his $3.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010. It’s better than the initial $100 million he wanted to trim, but it is still not enough.

The budget is still too high. You are trying to do too many costly things at once, during a time of great financial crisis.

The nation is bankrupt and you are piling on more debt. It is not going to add up, pardon the pun. This is a time for conservation, reduced spending, purse tightening and cutting excesses, due to a terrible financial situation. It is not the time to splurge in an attempt to financially remake America.

One can do so with greater ease and flexibility when there are surpluses, without endangering the national financial outlook. Then you are spending what you have. However, you are spending what you do not have and beyond.

It is the equivalent of buying a house, having a small amount of money to spare to work on it, addressing cosmetic items such as paint and wanting to expand, adding a new wing, going heavily into debt for it that you cannot repay, while the fundamentals of the property, such as a bad roof, very poor plumbing, terrible electrical and terminates eating away at the structure, are ignored.

Fix the fundamentals first, as that is your foundation and then when you have more money, work on the cosmetic financial issues and expansion.

Side Bar: where is America going to get the money? If this thing were as easy as just printing up as much money as one wants, every nation in the world would be filthy rich beyond compare. Think about that.

Obama budget cuts have little deficit impact

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's budget suggests $17 billion in spending cuts for fiscal year 2010, but Congress already has rejected some of those proposals and the savings do little to dent a projected $1.17 trillion deficit.

Obama on Thursday released details of the spending cuts, most of which were announced during or after the initial roll-out of his $3.5 trillion budget in February. Fiscal year 2010 begins on October 1…

http://www.reuters.com