Spending Addict Promises To Go Cold Turkey. But First, One More Sweet, Sweet Hit. [Andy]

I put this in the sidebar, but it probably warrants some commentary and piling on from the Moron Nation™: Obama to Push New Spending: State of Union Speech to Call for Boosting 'Competitiveness' While Nodding to Need for Budget Cuts

President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

Mr. Obama will argue that the U.S., even while trying to reduce its budget deficit, must make targeted investments to foster job growth and boost U.S. competitiveness in the world economy. The new spending could include initiatives aimed at building the renewable-energy sector—which received billions of dollars in stimulus funding—and rebuilding roads to improve transportation, people familiar with the matter said. (emphasis added)

He's kidding, right? Didn't we just piss away $862 billion we don't have on the Exact. Same. Thing? Or are these different green jobs and infrastructure projects than those other ones?

President Obama apparently continues to labor under the illusion that the Keynesian multiplier will produce a magical recovery on the back of "shovel-ready" projects. Right tool; wrong metaphor - he should acquaint himself instead with the First Law of Holes: When you find yourself in one, stop digging.

One upside, I guess, is that this could be a new opportunity for PhotoShop users all across the U.S., who are apparently the only people who benefited from Spendulus I.

I'd like to offer Paul Ryan a little unsolicited advice on the GOP rebuttal at this point. Congressman Ryan, if you could keep your response as close as possible to "FYNQ", it would be greatly appreciated.

This week the Republican Study Committee proposed a plan that's a little more to my liking.

The Republican Study Committee, a GOP House caucus made up of 165 conservative members, on Thursday released a proposed set of federal budget cuts that would reduce federal spending by $2.5 trillion over the next decade.

The proposal hinges on cutting non-security discretionary spending to 2006 levels through 2021, starting in the 2012 fiscal year. In addition to eliminating automatic increases for inflation, the committee proposes $330 billion worth of cuts to a long list of government-subsidized entities - including Medicaid, the Department of Energy, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Legal Services Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

I'd call their bet and raise them elimination of those agencies and more, but this is at least a good place to start.

[Update:] The Onion apparently received an early draft of Obama's speech and details one of his infrastructure projects here: Revamped WPA To Create 50,000 New Jobs By Disassembling, Reassembling Hoover Dam.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:30 AM

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