Obama Going To “Call The Bluff” Of Those Complaining About The National Debt
Tough talk:
Somehow people say, why are you doing that, I’m not sure that’s good politics. I’m doing it because I said I was going to do it and I think it’s the right thing to do. People should learn that lesson about me because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step-up because I’m calling their bluff. We’ll see how much of that, how much of the political arguments that they’re making right now are real and how much of it was just politics.
So how is Obama going to call their bluff? It’s easy to predict.
Since he knows that tax hikes aren’t going to be popular he’ll first propose spending cuts. But it will be spending cuts he’ll know Republicans will find untenable. Like gutting our military, for instance, even though the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff just pointed out that just the interest on the national debt is going to be larger than our entire defense budget in a few years. Then step two will be to propose massive tax hikes.
After all, if Republicans don’t want to cut spending, then we have to raise taxes right?
A brilliant political gambit, but hardly productive. The only solution to our debt and deficit is to shrink government down to something we can afford. We can’t afford all the government we have. Obama’s policies grow the size of government. We cannot, without destroying our economy entirely, raise taxes enough to cover not only the trillions Obama has added to the national debt during his time in office but also reduce the standing debt and the interest we’re being charged to finance it.
Update: At National Review, Steven Spruiell sees the same series of events unfolding:
Tags: Barack Obama, deficits, national debt, spendingTo me, the indirect reference to the Republican party signals that the “difficult choices” Obama plans to present to the country will mostly involve broad-based tax increases, and that he plans to lob accusations of hypocrisy at any Republican who criticizes him for breaking his pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000.
