Table of Contents
To Rush and Kathryn
Introduction to the Paperback
SINCE WE LAST SPOKE...
In the introduction to the hardcover edition of this book, I noted that Barack Obamas presidency has been the most destructive in American history. In the year that has transpired since the book went to print, his destructive patterns have accelerated to the point that our nation is headed toward national bankruptcy. If we dont immediately take steps to reverse course, we will face a national financial catastrophe that could far exceed the Great Depression.
Obama is a virtuoso at avoiding responsibility for his actions, incessantly scapegoating his predecessor George W. Bush for all the nations problems, even two and a half years into his presidency. If Americas comedic community were not in the tank for Obama and his discredited leftist agenda, his blame-Bush mantra would have long since become a regular punch line. Though senior Obama advisor David Plouffe did confess, in an unscripted moment, that Obama now owns this economy, Obama himself obviously disagrees. For him to publicly concede that his policies have failed would require him to consider changing courseand if theres anything weve learned about the man, a willingness to change course is not in his DNA.
This penchant for blaming Bush wrongly assumes that Bush bequeathed to Obama a predicament so dire that no policies could alleviate it. This grossly understates the culpability of the Democrats in general and of Obama personally in advancing the lions share of the policies that led to the financial meltdown of 2008. We dont need to revisit, in detail, those policies now; suffice it to say, that all but the most fervent ideologues now recognize that the leftist feel-good quest for affordable housing was the primary contributor to the subprime mortgage epidemic. While some GOP members went along in the early stages of this ill-begotten venture, President Bush and other Republicans began to recognize the dangers and tried to rein in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the other culprits. Meanwhile, Democrats, led by the likes of Barney Frank, stubbornly resisted reform and even denied there was a looming problem. Barack Obama sang in that choir.
Despite the obvious causal relationship between their policies and the financial crash, Democrats never owned up to their dominant role in it; as a foreshadowing of the Obama presidency, they simply blamed it on the usual targets: fat cat Wall Street firms and other special interests colluding with Republicans. Obamas habit of blaming the entire crisis on Bush is particularly disingenuous considering the quasi-leadership role then-Senator Obama played in engineering the TARP bailout. Obamas fingerprints were all over TARP, and he lobbied Bush during Bushs final weeks as president to release $350 billion in additional TARP funds. As ABC News reported, Obama and Bush have teamed up to get the money released. These efforts reveal as a farcical fraud Obamas later attempt to wash his hands of the entire era preceding his presidency.
Recall that during much of Bushs second term as president, the unemployment rate was below 5 percent. Following the housing meltdown, it climbed to 7.8 percent by the time he left office in January 2009, which seemed bad at the timeuntil Obama took charge. Notwithstanding the Obama administrations vows that its near-trillion dollar stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 percent, joblessness under Obama skyrocketed above 9 percent and, for a time, even surpassed 10 percent, a near-thirty-year high.
So when Obama glibly and endlessly reminds us that he didnt create this mess, informed Americans know betteras to the housing crisis, the debt crisis, unemployment, and the overall disastrous state of the economy. Obama and his Democrats maligned the Bush economy for eight years, yet that period saw fifty-two straight months of job growth and the fulfillment of Bushs commitment to halve the deficit in five years. Indeed, as late in Bushs term as 2007, the deficit was just $161 billion, less than 10 percent of Obamas FY 2010 deficit of some $1.65 trillion.
Today, more than halfway into Obamas term, the economy continues on its miserable path while the president masquerades as though he were a mere bystander. Research consistently shows that extending unemployment benefits exacerbates and prolongs unemployment, yet he will not budge from his insistence on that damaging policy. He perversely continues to grow the public sector, sucking all the oxygen out of the private sector and preventing its rebound.
Just before this paperback went to print, Obama held a press conference on the economy. Instead of acknowledging his instrumental role in this ongoing nightmare, he lashed out at Republicans and at Congress for not coming together to agree on a budget. He intoned that while he had been in Washington working hard on bin Laden, Afghanistan, and other issues, Republicans werent doing their job.
Its as if Obama inhabits his own world, unaware that the public knows it is he who has been gallivanting about, playing golf, attending fund-raisers, and lavishly entertaining at the White House instead of exercising leadership on our economic problems. The Republican-controlled Congress did pass a budget, no thanks to Democrats, and it incorporates the Ryan Plan, which seriously and credibly deals with our short-term and long-term budget issues. Its Obamas Democrat-controlled Senate that has failed to pass a budget for 800 daysand Obama has done nothing to cajole them into doing so.
What Obama has offered on budget reform has been nothing but generalities, smoke and mirrors, and deceptive numbers. Under pressure in 2009 to do somethinganythingbesides engage in more and more spending, Obama assembled the Bipartisan Budget Commission to study the budget crisis and make recommendations. Despite stacking the group with liberals and moderate Republicans, he still ignored its suggestions and once again kicked the can down the road.
After his party was trounced in the November 2010 elections, which were mostly a referendum on his first two years in office, Obama stalled some more. It wasnt until Paul Ryan was about to formally unveil his Path to Prosperity that Obama finally presented a long-term budget. A purely political scheme designed to preempt the Ryan plan and discredit its author, Obamas program offered no real specifics beyond raising taxes on the wealthy and bolstering his plans for rationing healthcare by strengthening a 15-member planning board created by the ObamaCare legislation.
Obama is, of course, acutely aware that this nation faces almost $90 trillion in unfunded entitlements, mainly consisting of Medicare and Social Security liabilities. With more and more Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, these liabilities are growing at an alarming rateby some $10 trillion last year alone. These programs, as presently constituted, are inarguably unsustainable.
The Ryan Plan directly addresses these problems by proposing a restructuring of Medicare and Medicaid and calling for a trigger to initiate Social Security reform in the near future. Hardly the draconian plan the Democrats claim, it leaves untouched the benefits of those now fifty-five years and older while restructuring the system for younger Americans. The plan contemplates major tax reform to stimulate a growing economy; the repeal of ObamaCare; and caps on non-defense discretionary spending. It is about as gradual and painless a plan as possible under the circumstances, not even projecting a balanced budget until around 2040.
