HOLY COW! $3.9 TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET

Just two (2) days after telling the nation about fiscal responsibility President Obama sends Congress a Three Trillion Nine Hundred Billion Dollar Budget (that is $3,900,000,000,000.00) for 2009 and a $3.5 Trillion dollar budget for 2010.  The last president approved a record deficit of $455 Billion Dollars based on a $3.1 Trillion dollar budget for 2009.  Obama’s updated budget for 2009 proposes a deficit of $1.750 Trillion and for 2010 $1.170 Trillion!  I was really hoping Obama was going to be different. 

I understand the shift in budget priorities – after all, that is the fundamental difference between the two major political parties.  As the prevailing party controlling both the White House and both houses of Congress, it is reasonable for democratic budget priorities to predominate the proposal.  And it does so dramatically.  This budget, however, completely blows the imagination not only in terms of scope but in terms of the huge increase over prior years.  Not only has spending dramatically increased, but governmental revenues (mainly from income tax) are down.  Obama promised change in the way we do things in Washington.  Tax and spend is not change. 

My fear is that the ordinary citizen, having been squeezed over the past decade by relatively flat growth in basic business and jobs (excluding the financial engineering of Wall Street), will begin to rebel.  Increasing the Government’s share of personal productivity is never good.  Minor fluctuations in the imposts of government on private earnings are tolerable – everything in moderation.  While taxes are never liked, most recognize taxes as the price we pay for a free society.  What is fundamentally different in this case is the penal like shift in burdening the taxpayers and small business owners with government contributions, without a corresponding benefit.  The increase and burden is immoderate and unfair.  Representatives and Senators hole up in Washington unresponsive to the people that elected them and view the taxpayers as a perpetual piggy bank that can be robbed time and time again. 

That is only on the Federal side.  Taxpayers across the Country are also being increasingly burdened by their state governments.  Increasing taxes at a time of economic uncertainty is counter intuitive.  We need to create policies that encourage investment in new industries.  We need policies to get risk capital into the hands of fledgling businesses.  We need policies that open the door for small businesses to hire new employees.

 How much productivity and growth can we expect if the Governments confiscate nearly 70% of our earnings?  Where is the money for new jobs?  After the government fills the pot holes and builds the bridges to nowhere, what have we left?  Have we created a sustainable economy?  When we increase handouts (entitlements – whatever you want to call them) what do we create?  We are planting the seeds of rebellion with these policies, and if we don’t watch out, we may destroy the very society we are trying to save.