There's a rule in politics about going after your opponent's biggest strength. Sow enough doubt and criticism, and pretty soon the public stops perceiving it as that big of a strength.
In addressing fiscal discipline, Obama has adopted an alternative approach: Talking up his biggest failing.
After passing a $3.5 trillion bailout and stimulus, he wants to reintroduce the pay-go?
He says he's identified $2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, but that's a bogus number. It assumes the Iraq war would continue unabated at the rate it was going when Bush left office, which was never going to happen.
He asks his cabinet to cut $100 million dollars in waste, which is 0.0029% of the federal budget---equivalent to someone who makes $60,000 cutting back on one $3 latte a year. Political theater much?
See this chart again from the Congressional Budget office:
Notice the dotted lines of the president's budget begin after the stimulus and bailout peaks. The solid "baseline" after the peaks is the revenue and spending we'd have if no changes had been made.
Obama's budget doubles the gap between revenue and spending, and now he wants to sell himself as fiscally disciplined? It's as if a new CEO doubled the rate his company was losing money and then went to assure shareholders that it's really OK, he has plans to be responsible by rationing new office pens.
The last time we had a gap of this magnitude were the much-needed Reagan reforms and defense 'stimulus' of the 80s that drove the Soviet Union into ruin. But we aren't dueling superpowers anymore, and the world is a flatter place.
What Obama won't say is the math on his campaign promises doesn't work. In order to pay for this medium- and long- term spending, he's going to have to raise taxes. Spent money has to come from somewhere, and this president's budget is the largest progressive binge since LBJ.
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