Saturday, May 23, 2009

President Oblivious

Drudge is featuring this stunning interview excerpt of C-SPAN host Steve Scull with President Obama:
SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything...
Is Obama suggesting that the current deficits -- deficits created by legislation signed by Obama since he became President -- don't count because they are "not caused by any decisions we've made on healthcare so far."? What does healthcare have to do with the current deficits? Does Obama not realize that his ideas for the healthcare system will further the increase in federal spending on healthcare, further increasing federal obligations and deficits?  Is Obama oblivious to the billions of dollars that have been spent on projects -- like forced lending to financial institutions and purchasing auto companies -- and earmark sweetheart deals for congressional and senate districts are responsible for the current tsunami of federal spending? Is Obama oblivious to how his administrations intervention with the capital markets has poisoned the atmosphere for investment?

Stunning. Simply stunning. President oblivious.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds puts it succinctly:
So we’re out of money because we don’t have national health care? Bogus. I think, instead, that it has something to do with the fact that Obama has been pouring money down a crony-statist rathole at absolutely astronomical and unprecedented rates. Yep, here’s that graphic again. Note that it doesn’t support Obama’s claim at all — but it does support mine.