The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

#OccupyResoluteDesk: ‘I Take A Balanced Approach To Imbalanced Budgets’

Posted on | March 13, 2013 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

“Paul Ryan, today, put forward his budget,” says ABC, “and he says, he’s challenging you to come forward with a budget that also reaches balance. Are you going to do that?”
“No,” Obama says. “My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance,” Obama said. “My goal is, how do we grow the economy, put people back to work. And if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue.”

The more full quotation is via The Blaze.

What’s fascinating about this is the attempt to sound reasonable about a fundamentally unreasonable proposition. It’s like telling your spouse: “If I just focus on getting my leg over with enough others to grow sufficiently bored chasing tail, I’ll satisfy myself that there is no one better than you, love.”

Ryan taking 10 years (a decade!) to balance the budget is not a case of “chas[ing] a balanced budget just for the sake of balance”. Such would balancing the budget in one or two years via highly disruptive reforms to, well, everything. This blog bows to Ryans superior wonkiness in terms of knowing what’s possible.

So for BHO to dismiss Ryan on motive, as though balance was somehow a lower priority in its own right, is deeply offensive. May you be hoisted on your mendacious petard, Mr. President.

via JWF and The Weekly Standard

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Category: Barack Obama

Comments

  • http://www.facebook.com/eric.ashley.58 Eric Ashley

    Its actually true that if we cut taxes, we’d get more revenue. But I doubt that’s what our Supreme Leader has in mind.

    And 10 yrs. to balance the budget is reasonable? Um, okay, say, can I like borrow a million bucks a year from you, and I promise I’ll start paying it back ten years from now?

  • JeffWeimer

    The funny thing is, he (and the rest of them) are advocating a defined contribution plan to attack the deficit, rather than a defined benefit (actual balanced budget).

    I thought they hated that kind of thing.

  • Neo

    “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” – Barack Obama, July 3, 2008

  • Quartermaster

    True, alas. But, then Zero turns around and makes Bush look responsible.

  • http://www.leftbankofthecharles.com/ Charles

    The politicians know, based on past experience, that they can run huge deficits for any number of years without getting voted out of office.

    This latest round started when Dick Cheney declared that Reagan had proved deficits don’t matter. It’s going to continue until the lenders start worrying about not getting paid back.

    Paul Ryan thinks he has a decade. I’m not so sure.

  • http://wizbangblog.com/ Adjoran

    It is true that a growing economy will generate more revenue. Unfortunately, the quoted passage seems to be Obama saying that he will raise taxes, therefore the economy will respond and grow to generate them.

    He’s a moron. The guy has never actually shown any depth of thought in ANY field at all. He’s a well-trained actor and consummate con artist who can fool just enough government-educated suckers to buy his nostrums.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    And his one and only immediate goal is to bring down the American Systems of government, the Economy, and the Culture.

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