Me, Obama, Standard and Poor’s and Popcorn
For the past few months I have been really disturbed about this nation’s fiscal challenges. With a $14 trillion structural deficit, and a $1.6 trillion deficit for this fiscal year alone, I think people should be concerned—I mean really concerned. So when I heard that the president was going to propose a plan to reduce the country’s budget deficit, I could hardly contain my joy: my excitement was immeasurable, and my relief, well, awesome.
In fact, Mr. Obama almost made me believe, for once, that, indeed we were “the change we’ve been waiting for” (one of Mr. Obama’s many popular slogans), and that he was the leader we’ve been waiting for to help, effectuate the change we’ve been waiting for. Before Mr. Obama started his speech I microwaved my popcorn, dimmed the lights in my living room, and grabbed a, well, let’s call it a nice beverage, waiting to finally see the “change we can believe in.” At around 1:00pm, there came the monumental moment I had been waiting for: Mr. Obama walking into a room full of a very hospitable crowd, with a million dollar smile on his face, and taking the lead on one of the most important challenges of our times. Sweet! Oh, wait! He wasn’t really leading was he? He was actually following Mr. Ryan, if I am not mistaking. But anyway, I was still excited, nonetheless, to see my commander in chief, finally make some tough choices to help put America on a more fiscally responsible path.
As he started to speak, I reached out for my popcorn, and it was pretty tasty, I must say. But then Mr. Obama began to lay out his plan. His long awaited plan to reduce America’s deficit mainly involved the following: raising taxes on the rich, cutting defense spending even more, cutting some domestic discretionary spending and cutting inefficiencies in our welfare system (primarily Medicare and Medicaid). And that was it. No. Seriously, that really was it.
I immediately lost my appetite for my tasty popcorn. My excitement level suddenly deflated from level hundred to zero. My hope to finally see some changes I could believe in had been dashed– again. The speech despite its glorious rhetoric (and we must admit Mr. Obama is quite an impressive speaker), was an immense disappointment—a disappointment of epic proportions. It was a disappointment not because of its lack in boldness; nor was it a disappointment because of its lack in details—although on both occasions it absolutely was—but it was a disappointment because, when carefully considered Mr. Obama only had one real proposal, and it wasn’t particularly compelling: raising taxes on the rich.
He did not propose any credible policies that would help really fix Medicare, other than basically window- dress the issue, by saying he would eliminate inefficiencies in the system, and leave it to a commission. (Setting up a commission is another way of saying no significant change is going to happen. But with his brilliant rhetoric– not to mention, good punch lines–Mr. Obama was able to make it sound really wonderful, and so he escaped scrutiny.) He knew very well that further cuts in defense spending, as things stand right now, would only be a mirage and so, again, he left the issue to Defense Secretary Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, and the pentagon to find further cuts and present them to him. From this mirage he came up with a miraculous number: $400 billion in cuts in defense spending. In short, Mr. Obama managed to propose a budget that reduces the deficit by $4 trillion over the next twelve years, by raising taxes, and by merely imagining trillions worth of savings in other programs. He believes, I suppose, with our power of imagination we could miraculously save Medicare from itself and from bankrupting the country, without any solid fundamental reforms; he believes that with hope we can reduce defense spending without necessarily cutting anything specific.
Sadly, however, Standard and Poor’s, and other credit agencies are not betting on hope and imagination. They are looking for action. And without action we face the risk of having our credit downgraded.
So now, with my money spent on popcorn, my hopes for deficit reduction dashed by Mr. Obama, and with nowhere to look for true leadership, Me, Mr. Obama, and, well, my popcorn can only hope and pray that America’s credit is not downgraded by Standard and Poor’s. If we are waiting for some sort of divine intervention to fix our fiscal problems, then I guess we are not the “change we’ve been waiting for” after all.
