Obama's new budget

Guys, it's been a long time since I posted anything political. Frankly, I have been generally frustrated with the entirety of American government for a few years, so I have found it hard to rail against anyone in particular. I was not particularly upset about Obama's election; based on recent historical precedent, Democratic presidents haven't been substantially better or worse on fiscal or social issues.

The first thing that I have to say is that I found the headlines about Obama's new budget absolutely appalling. Most of the news agencies that I saw gave it a headline about "halving the budget deficit in four years". Well, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it? It certainly did to me. If I've ever believed that there is a disturbingly liberal bias to the media, it was when I read those news articles. The "halving" of the deficit is based on his newly-proposed budget, which expands the deficit to a level beyond anything seen at any point in our nation's history.


Granted, that second line (for 2009) is only an estimate. But even the first line, which doesn't include the stimulus package or the bank bailout (TARP), is the worst budget deficit we've ever seen.

Now, if that weren't disturbing enough, please do me a favor and read this very, very excellent article written by an Economics professor at Stanford. It's excellent because it's well written, not written as an inflammatory riot-inducer, and actually includes some real facts/references. Also, it won't take more than 5 minutes to read.

When you've read that, you'll probably feel as disturbed as I do. This really does sound like what we've been dreading for a long time. We need to elect leaders who will stand up against this sort of thing, and not trash the nation's economy (and by unfortunate extension, the economy of much of the rest of the world).