Dean Baker: Obama Clueless

President Obama Doesn't Understand the Origins of the Deficit

This fact should have been highlighted in the news reporting on President Obama's speech last night. President Obama asserted:

"For the last decade, we have spent more money than we take in. In the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off our debt, the money was spent on trillions of dollars in new tax cuts, while two wars and an expensive prescription drug program were simply added to our nation’s credit card.

As a result, the deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office."

This is seriously mistaken.

The Congressional Budget Office's projections from January of 2008, the last ones made before it recognized the housing bubble and the implications of its collapse, showed a deficit of just $198 billion for 2009, the year President Obama took office. In other words, the deficit was absolutely not "on track to top $1 trillion."

This is what is known as a "gaffe" of enormous proportions. It indicates that President Obama does not have the most basic understanding of the nature of the budget problems the country faces. He apparently believes that there was a huge deficit on an ongoing basis as a result of the policies in place prior to the downturn. In fact, the deficits were relatively modest. The huge deficits came about entirely as a result of the economic downturn brought about by the collapse of the housing bubble. This misunderstanding of the origins of the budget deficit could explain President Obama's willingness to make large cuts to core social welfare programs, like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

It is incredible that no major news outlet noted this enormous gaffe on the fundamentals of the most important issue facing the country today.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pres...e-origins-of-the-deficit-2011-7#ixzz1TDDnVAbF

 

"Obama Clueless"



Hell, I knew that the first time I heard him speak in 2008.

 

That was no mistake, no gaffe.

It was Obama lying. Trying to blame others for his lack of leadership.

Of course Obama does believe his fable...

How I long for the intelligence of Palin and Bachmann over this dunce

 

Exactly.

This is just who he is.

 

There is an apples to oranges problem in here, I can smell it before I open it.

 

speaking of clueless...

 

In January 2009, just before President Obama took office, the budget office projected a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009 and deficits in subsequent years, based on continuing Mr. Bush’s policies and the effects of recession.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24sun4.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

 

And 300 billion of that 1.2 trillion was TARP money going out, which was a 1 time expenditure, which also got paid back in subsequent years, which means that Obama is responsible for blowing a 700 billion dollar+ hole in the deficit, in other words he doubled it, and put the same size hole that Bush did.

 

Possibly, for one year, and presumably any business propped up by the stimulus (I know of one) also paid back at least some of the money, directly, and some of the money by economic multiplication.

(Good data there, Free Thinker.)

Edit: Obama's not clueless, not by a long shot. But I think he might be gutless.

 

30 months after he returned to home cooking, George W. Bush still gets majority blame for the economy.

But here's the breaking news for wishful Democrats: George W. Bush isn't running for anything but exercise.