Opinion
Hardest choice of all is scaling back government
Examiner Editorial
January 26, 2009
After a relentless expansion of big government for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the nation’s economy is finally buckling under the load. In his inauguration address, President Barack Obama blamed “greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” But Obama’s $825 billion stimulus plan contains few “hard choices”- just lots more government spending.
The hardest choice off all is to scale back government at the local, state and federal levels and stop the seemingly inexorable growth of entitlement programs that are bankrupting the nation. But is the Obama administration up to this kind of real change?
The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis reports that in fiscal year 2010, the total obligations of the federal government will equal 95 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Will the new president tell members of his own party that the national debt is already at an unacceptable level?
How about getting rid of all the corporate welfare programs and putting all U.S. companies on a level playing field? Can the new president tell high-priced Washington lobbyists that the era of corporate giveaways is over?
And how about saying no to all those irresponsible state and local government officials who kept expanding programs far beyond what was required to keep up with inflation and population growth? Will Obama tell them to get rid of programs that are duplicative, wasteful, or just do not work?
A 2008 study found that “prevailing wages” on federally funded construction projects under the Davis-Bacon Act are actually 22 percent higher than actual wages in urban areas, and that suspending them would save almost 10 percent in federal building costs. Will Obama buck his union supporters in order to save taxpayers $40 billion in infrastructure costs?
Congress is already larding up the stimulus package with things like contraceptives. Will Obama tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will veto any stimulus bill that contains such unnecessary pork?
Borrowing more than a trillion dollars – the largest federal deficit in U.S. history - hasn’t jump-started the economy. Will Obama concede that borrowing another trillion will not get the job done either and make some spending cuts of his own instead?
Doing all this will be tough. But as President Harry S. Truman famously said of the presidency, “The buck stops here.”
The hardest choice off all is to scale back government at the local, state and federal levels and stop the seemingly inexorable growth of entitlement programs that are bankrupting the nation. But is the Obama administration up to this kind of real change?
The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis reports that in fiscal year 2010, the total obligations of the federal government will equal 95 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Will the new president tell members of his own party that the national debt is already at an unacceptable level?
How about getting rid of all the corporate welfare programs and putting all U.S. companies on a level playing field? Can the new president tell high-priced Washington lobbyists that the era of corporate giveaways is over?
And how about saying no to all those irresponsible state and local government officials who kept expanding programs far beyond what was required to keep up with inflation and population growth? Will Obama tell them to get rid of programs that are duplicative, wasteful, or just do not work?
A 2008 study found that “prevailing wages” on federally funded construction projects under the Davis-Bacon Act are actually 22 percent higher than actual wages in urban areas, and that suspending them would save almost 10 percent in federal building costs. Will Obama buck his union supporters in order to save taxpayers $40 billion in infrastructure costs?
Congress is already larding up the stimulus package with things like contraceptives. Will Obama tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will veto any stimulus bill that contains such unnecessary pork?
Borrowing more than a trillion dollars – the largest federal deficit in U.S. history - hasn’t jump-started the economy. Will Obama concede that borrowing another trillion will not get the job done either and make some spending cuts of his own instead?
Doing all this will be tough. But as President Harry S. Truman famously said of the presidency, “The buck stops here.”
