Obama Forms Commission to Reduce Obamanism

February 17th, 2010

Last month, The Senate shot down a plan backed by Mr. Obama to create a bipartisan task force to address and reduce the U.S. deficit. Although it did garner 53 votes, 7 shy of the 60 needed to pass, lawmakers said they didn’t want to be “railroaded” into how they legislated their spending from outside sources. I’m left to assume the American people are included in that statement as well.

Obama has decided to create the commission anyway through an executive order and without the teeth of the original proposal. Law makers would not be required to even acknowledge the recommendations proposed by this panel let alone vote on anything.

This from FOXNews.com

Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson would lead the panel, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president’s executive order creating the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform had not been announced.

The deficit spiked to an extraordinary $1.4 trillion last year and could top that figure this year as the struggling economy puts a big dent in tax revenues. Even worse from the perspective of economists and deficit hawks, the medium-term deficit picture is for deficits to hit around $1 trillion a year for the foreseeable future.

Obama and his economic team have said repeatedly that this is not sustainable. He told lawmakers during his State of the Union address that he would go around their vote and appoint a version of a deficit commission.

Obama’s version of the commission is a weak substitute for what he really wanted: a panel created by Congress that could force lawmakers to consider unpopular remedies to reduce the debt, including curbing politically sensitive entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

As rejected, the bipartisan 18-member panel would have worked for much of the year and, if 14 members agree, report a deficit reduction blueprint after the November elections that would be voted on before the new Congress convenes next year. The 14 would have to include at least half of the panel’s Republicans.

That idea crashed in the Senate, defeated by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans — some of whom initially supported the idea.

Although Obama’s commission will lack any requirement for Congress to act on its advice, it will provide some political cover and big-name backing.

Bowles, the president of the University of North Carolina, served as Democratic President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff from 1996 to 1998. Simpson, a senator from Wyoming from 1979 to 1997, was the No. 2 Republican and the top GOP member of the Social Security subcommittee.

So as Mr Obama plans to raise the deficit to record levels and then raise them again over the following year, he’s calling for a minuscule 15 billion dollar spending freeze and a panel to tell congress how to reduce spending. One must wonder if the cost of paying these panel members is going to exceed the actual net gains from any cuts congress actually agrees to.

This is nothing but one more cog in Mr. Obama’s political machine that just refuses to run out of gas even though he won the election a year ago. He’s not looking to bust the deficit, he’s looking to put more capital into his political coffers. Just one more of many on the list of empty promises this man has made both on the road to the White House and after he moved in.

It is pretty plain to see Mr. Obama has no intentions of curbing what he himself calls, “unsustainable spending”.

What we need is jobs and a gross reduction in the size and scope of the federal government. We don’t merely need cuts in spending; we need to cut out programs altogether. The government is simply too big and too wasteful. 90% of what is done on the federal level needs to be moved to the States. We shouldn’t have some states contributing grossly more in tax revenue to the federal government than they get back while “donor” states take more than they give. The responsibility needs to be more localized and tailored to meet the needs of Americans on a targeted basis the way that was intended by our Founders; localized representation and action in the hands of the people, not bureaucrats in Washington and not corporate lobbyists sweating about the next set of overbearing federal regulations and taxes.

If this commission comes out with any findings other than the need to kill Mr. Obama’s gross deficit spending agenda then it will be clear that they are simply tilting at windmills in an effort to further the current Marxist agenda.

If you want to increase tax revenue intake to the federal government, Mr. Obama, try putting people back to work with meaningful, long term employment. More private wealth equals more tax revenue collected. It’s pretty simple. Grossly cut the budget and freeze all discretionary spending outside of the military budget. Cut the corporate tax rate by 10 to 15% and put a 7 to 10 year moratorium on all capital gains across the board. Take what is left of the Porkulus and apply every penny to small business grants and 0% interest loans to encourage growth in targeted locals and industries.

But, as we’ve clearly seen, Mr. Obama’s agenda doesn’t seem to take into account anything but redistribution through tax and spend policy, union pandering and carbon credit programs.

Mr. Obama is right about one thing. Now is the time for drastic change, just not the kind of change being espoused in Washington today. We have never been able to spend our way out of a recession or depression but the never ending line of Democrats who can’t seem to grasp this concept is out the door and around the corner.

We need jobs.

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