What Makes Us Great?

[Geee]

American Spectator:

President Barack Obama has yet to adopt a slogan for his 2012 reelection bid, but he does seem to be warming up to a theme, or at least a formula: Spending equals greatness.

That's not to say the president does not realize spending restraint is necessary to avoid a fiscal crisis. Rather -- at least based on a reemerging theme -- Obama seems to think American greatness is directly tied to government spending.

Most recently, on April 28 in New York, Obama told his base at a fundraising event of the Democratic National Committee, "I'm not going to reduce our deficit by sacrificing the things that always made up great as a people."

Those would be what? He continued, "I'm not going to sacrifice investments in education. I'm not going to make scholarships harder to get and more expensive for young people. I'm not going to sacrifice the safety of our highways or our airports. I'm not going to sacrifice clean air and clean water. I'm not going to sacrifice clean energy at a time when we need to free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, and folks are getting killed at the pump."
"Investments" are another name for spending. But the federal government did not "always" spend money on those things that have "always made America great."

"There's more than one way to mortgage America's future," Obama continued at the New York event. "We mortgage that future if we don't get a handle on our deficit and debt, but we also mortgage it if we're not investing in those things that will assure the promise of the American Dream for the next generation."

Thus, the American Dream cannot be accomplished without government spending?

[pollyannaish]

This fits right into the "reality tv" version of life. It is not the assets you have that are important, it is that you are living a cushy life surrounded by lots of material goods that are flashy enough for people to be envious.

 

Rich has never been about stuff. It has been about having enough assets to not worry about where the next meal was coming from, or having something to fall back on in a crisis. What drives me nuts is that I think a lot of people in this country are surrounded by 'easy living' and still wondering how on earth they're going to eat next month.

 

I fear that is the same philosophy Obama is basing his fiscal policy on. And its going to bring us all down in the process.