It is very easy for someone to say that a plan will not work and criticize it excessively. It is much more difficult to offer sound alternative solutions in the light of such criticism. Every time I hear the President speak I walk away feeling completely confident of our eventual recovery. So I pull up my bootstraps and head out to do my part by using a small amount of purchasing power to help in the cause. Just as I’m about to head for the door, I hear someone from the GOP screaming ‘oh my goodness…..the sky is falling….the sky is falling.’ So what do I do instead….I go out and buy an umbrella.
The GOP has been all over the Sunday shows and the political spectrum shouting that the budget proposed by President Obama spends too much and will impose insurmountable debt on future generations. Such an argument confuses the immediate priorities. Who amongst us would forgo an opportunity to provide our starving child with food knowing that it will result in a larger credit card bill next month even if there was a possibility that the grocer may not accept credit and you may walk away empty handed. In times of emergency all reasonably viable opportunities must be pursued. Besides, give a child a fish and he/she will eat for a day. Teach a child to fish and he/she will eat for a lifetime. It is a much better proposition to sacrifice the funds now and clean up the ocean so that future generations can eat for a lifetime.
Unfortunately, the GOP have failed miserably at offering any plausible alternatives to the president’s budget that have not already been tried during the eight years of the Bush administration. In spite of the fact that the GOP has all of a sudden got fiscal religion, lets revisit history for a moment in terms of its fiscal track record. The budget was balanced for the first time in 30 years under President Bill Clinton. That means that the four Republican presidents preceding Clinton (Reagan, Bush 41, Nixon, Ford) and the single democratic president (Carter) could not balance the budget. Lets also remember that President Bush and a republican controlled Congress entered office with a 86.4 billion dollar surplus. President Bush, with the help of a GOP controlled Congress six out of his eight years in office, left the presidency and the country with a staggering $638 billion dollar deficit. One wonders if on the Titanic the GOP were the ones bailing water into the ship. Needless to say, the Republican party has absolutely no credibility when it comes to debt left to future generations or fiscal discipline in general.
The President proposes that the best way to bring down our deficit is to have a budget that leads to broad economic growth. It also makes sense that the president’s budget is inseparable from our economic recovery because it lays the necessary foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity. The administration plans to create a new foundation for the economy by creating a new health care system, new energy technology, and achieving great progress in education so that it will enable us to become a much stronger competitor in the global economy. There is an enormous need to counter the incredible drop in demand currently plaguing the nation and pull us out of this crisis. The only sector with money to do so is the government. That means that the government is the liquidity source of last resort right now. It must spend to stimulate demand and prevent us from sinking into a depression. As a matter of fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan body, says that the adoption of the Reinvestment and Recovery Act will help to end the recession by fall of this year.
We must make the necessary investments in education, health care, and renewable energy infrastructure now in order to equip future generations for future and sustained prosperity. So instead of just putting a band-aid on the broken economy this administration has opted to confront it, operate, and heal it. The biggest drain on future funds is health care. More specifically, Medicare and Medicaid. Therefore, investing in an information technology system to make the health care industry more efficient will also contribute significantly to decreasing our deficit. Now that all the relevant players in the health care industry now recognize that the industry must be reformed including the majority of the GOP, twelve years later, but at least they are on board now, now in the time to do it. We must face the fact that we as a people must make a tectonic shift in how we move throughout or day to day lives. During this challenging time it will be inconvenient and we will have to make sacrifices now in order to secure a prosperous future.
Other obstructionist arguments offered by the GOP.
The GOP argues that the small businesses will be hurt most by a tax increase on Americans making over $250,000 a year.
According to Politifact, a small business would have to ”make” $250,000 in net profit after deducting all his expenses (employees pay, supplies, and other legitimate business expenses) to be subject to the tax increase. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says that only two percent of small businesses will be subject to the tax increase. Which means that 98 percent will more than likely receive a tax cut.
Charities will lose by a decrease in the deductions allowed for charitable giving by the wealthy. There will be a cap on such deductions for those earning $250,000 or more a year.
The best way to encourage and enable charitable giving is to have a flourishing economy. When the economy is booming people are much more charitable. In addition, a significant amount of charitable giving comes from low income people through religious institutions etc.
Requires a Cap and Trade or energy tax on all Americans.
The cap and trade plan is designed to reduce green house emissions and address climate change in addition to investing in necessary infrastructure building. Further, building such infrastructure will enable us to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. The plan will also move toward providing us with alternative sources of energy and provide millions of green jobs in the process. Not to mention that it will help us to become an energy producing rather than an energy consuming economy. This part of the president’s budget is a necessary investment in our infrastructure, by way of updating the electric grid among other things, for the jobs of the future. Our outdated electricity grid is costing the U.S. over $100 billion dollars a year. It wastes twice as much energy as it did thirty years ago. We need to update and modernize our energy grid. The GOP has criticized this part of the budget by referring to it as an energy tax. Why you ask? Because the GOP is significantly dependent on oil company money and it is not in the interest of the oil industry for the U.S. to become less oil dependent. Why you ask? Because the cap and trade plan will result in consumers using less energy (driving less)which cuts into oil industry profits.
Repealing tax credits to the oil and gas industry that may result in putting the industry at a competitive disadvantage.
Exxon Mobil shatters U.S. records in January 2009 by reporting profits of 45.2 billion for 2008. Nuff said.
Where is the GOP’s budget you ask? They don’t have one.
