Let's Just Lie

On April 13^th, President Barack Obama abandoned all pretense of being presidential. Not only was his response to Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal not reasonable, it was dishonest and childish.

President Obama Before a Joint Session of Congress
Image via Wikipedia

Agree or disagree with his ideas, Ryan (R-WI) has done the heavy lifting on the 2012 budget and he did so knowing that it would immediately make him a target for those on the left. This alone should bring to him some well-deserved respect. The President, rather than give a nod to Ryan’s work and then list where he disagrees simply attacked the character of Congressman Ryan and other Republicans and then pretended he has a legitimate budget proposal.

The President makes some pretty wild assumptions in his – well, we’ll call it a “budget” for lack of a better word. How likely are President Obama’s assumptions to become reality?

Let me answer this way: What are the chances that you own a DeLorean automobile?  That gets struck by lightning while you’re driving it at exactly 88 mph? And you get sent back in time? Well, that’s about the chance that the US economy will grow at four per cent per year in 2012 and 2013, while inflation remains under two percent. In fact, “Back to the Future” has more science and less fiction than President Obama’s “budget”.

I’m not sure what President Obama is attempting to achieve. Surely he understands that if spending and government growth continue at the rate Democrats want then our economy will be in ruins. Despite the circumstantial evidence, I’m reluctant to believe that our President could possibly be as ignorant of simple economic theory as it appears. In addition, his vitriolic attack on Republicans indicates to me that he is desperately trying to distract attention from his fatally flawed and unrealistic budget. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American public to take the Obama “budget” proposal seriously. If I'm right and the President is not amazingly ignorant of economic theory and not lacking in common sense, then he's being brazenly dishonest with the American people.

Congressman Paul Ryan made an interesting point on the news talk shows: President Obama’s budget speech was not coordinated with the White House economic advisors; it was coordinated with Obama’s campaign people.  The speech was written to influence voters, not to solve problems. Style 1; Substance 0.

So President Obama is launching his campaign. He can’t run on accomplishments, so he is running on convenient fictions. Then while President Obama goes to his “happy place,” you and I can deal with $4 per gallon gas – until it becomes $5 per gallon gas, 9% unemployment and a President who hides from reality.

It’s time for Democrats to acknowledge that if growing government translated into growing the economy then we would be in the midst of a tremendous economic boom. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not and won’t be next year either. Somewhere though, there is a President who is pretending our economy will grow at four percent next year and at 4.5 percent in 2013 and he will look you in the eye and speak the words. Too bad they are just words. Untrue words. Lies.

Written by Ken Carroll