A real budget for a real America

Did you see the President on Wednesday?  You may not have recognized him because he's been in hiding for quite some time, letting Republicans dominate the airwaves with their silliness, but I guess he was just resting up because on Wednesday he came out swinging and man did he look good!

Before I get into how Obama made Paul Ryan look silly, I'd like to turn your attention west, to Britain.  As you may remember, Britain imposed harsh austerity measures a year ago, planning on turning around their economy and reducing their deficit.  Take a look at Britain today and see how that's working out.  The layoff of more that 300,000 government employees due to cuts may very well lead the country back into recession.  That's not a foregone conclusion, but it's always sadly amusing to hear Republicans say they're concerned with creating jobs when their policies will cost thousands of jobs.  For the economy to grow there needs to be demand and unemployed people don't spend their paychecks. Obviously there has to be a balance between public and private employees (and by balance I mean there need to be FAR more private sector employees than public employees), but nonetheless, public employees are spending those paychecks and creating demand.  Republicans seem to either forget that or just simply not care.

Anyhow, back to Obama's budget plan.  I want to start with a bit of criticism.  I've been hearing a lot of this lately: "we've got to live within our means."  Let's talk leadership for a second.  Leadership requires vision and President Obama certainly delivered plenty of that in his speech, but Russia is planning a lunar base as a stepping stone to putting a man on Mars.  If any country beats the United States to putting a man on Mars it would be a national travesty and an embarrassment.  Let's stop pretending like America is a decrepit nation on the way out and that we have to cut back on our greatness to reflect our position as an impoverished nation that must live within its means.  This is America, we've got problems and we're going to fix them because that's what we do in America.

But about those problems, the deficit specifically, the President did not disappoint. Rather than offering a vision of America in which we're too poor to provide basic services (although still somehow rich enough to give money to rich people), the president outlined a much better path.

Among the cuts he mentioned - and he was far too vague - were many that I and a multitude of others have mentioned in the past.  He began by talking about cutting defense spending.  The need for cuts in defense spending is paramount. We can assure America's safety and still spend less and more wisely on defense.  How's this for hypocrisy - CBO analysis has shown that the $38 billion in cuts passed recently really only amounts to about $350 million.  Why? Because they were offset by increased military spending.  Keep that in mind next time you go to the polls.

The president then went on to address healthcare spending, the main driver of federal spending and debt. Let's make this clear for anyone who may not understand the difference between Obamacare and Paul-Ryan-no-care. Skyrocketing health costs are the main driver of federal debt.  The Paul Ryan plan for fixing rising health costs is to ignore them and slash spending by refusing to pay for Medicare, instead offering vouchers to help subsidize costs.  All this does is shift the cost to people; it makes Americans shoulder the burden. In no way whatsoever does it even attempt to control rising costs.  Obamacare (I'm staring to love the term) is an attempt to spread the burden by requiring that everyone have insurance so that my taxes don't pay for your healthcare.  It focuses on cheaply preventing diseases rather than expensively treating them. It's not a perfect bill, but it attempts to address the problem and preserve benefits for Americans rather than running from the problems while leaving Americans with less.

Finally, Obama mentioned the politically incorrect, but the fiscally responsible step that has to be taken, raising taxes.  In Paul Ryan fairly tale land we can make $4.3 trillion in cuts, but also cut $4.2 trillion in revenue and close the deficit. In Paul Ryan fairy tale land, vampires and werewolves are friends, but everyone knows that in real life vampires and werewolves are locked in an ancient, unending war, so we know Paul Ryan's budget is loony. In reality, we will have to raise taxes.  This year I paid the federal government $400 and GE paid the federal government $0.  Aside from being grossly unfair, is that kind of revenue really going to fix our deficit?  Is cutting revenue further going to make it better.

There are obviously other areas that need to be addressed to truly make the government efficient and yet still allow it to provide the services that Americans want.  But if we want to ensure the greatness of our country we have to do so with sensible cuts that  maintain a view of America's future greatness and the well-being of all Americans.  We cannot afford a budget that cuts everything including revenue and benefits only the wealthy.  Exit Paul Ryan, enter Barack Obama, a man with a real budget for a real America.