Spending Like A Not-So-Drunken Sailor
Is Obama really spending us into oblivion? Kevin Drum argues not:
Obama wants to push taxes on the super wealthy back up to 2001 levels. He wants to move in the direction of carbon pricing and universal healthcare, just like he promised repeatedly during the campaign. He wants to increase defense spending, but increase it slightly less than the Pentagon would like. Stimulus outlays aside, the budget as a whole is up only moderately compared to two years ago.
And John Cole, in his response, adds:
Sure, what is happening is more “liberal” than what we have seen the last decade (and considering Clinton was no flaming liberal either, we could say several decades), and yes, the budget is large and made me want to vomit when I first saw the number. But this is not socialism, we are not “soaking the rich,” etc. Nothing radical has happened at all, and if anything, it is the far left who has every right to be pissed impatient because Obama is moving so slowly and so cautiously, and from a progressive standpoint is little more than a muddling centrist.
There’s still plenty to dislike about Obama’s spending habits, but this notion that he’s somehow the second coming of FDR, let alone Stalin or Marx, is inaccurate, to say the least. Yes, he has big plans. But just maybe he’s smart enough to know which ones ultimately won’t work and will alter course towards the middle, as Clinton did. If the attitude of the lefties who were hoping for a revolution is any indication, he’s already on the right track.
Comments
When are you going answer my questions you piece of shit? Lee, you’re a fucking clown. Your blog is a joke.
I’ve been holding back while everyone trashes WVR, but no longer.
Dude, you’re a fucking moron…
If you look at it percentage-wise, I think you might find that Obama is actually spending less, comparitively speaking, than Roosevelt did with the New deal. That is, given how much bigger the Federal budget is today compared to 1933, and what Obama wants to spend on (the banks, infrastructure, alternative energy, education, military, etc) and what Roosevelt spent in creating new programs out of whole cloth, it could be argued that Obama is actually acting with restraint. When I hear stuff like “He’s spending more than FDR did on the New Deal!” I think, “Yeah, but there’s a lot more to spend now when compared to 1933. Everything has gone up quite a bit since then.” So, it’s not on the scale of FDR, when you think about it.
Ergo, Obama is not the next FDR. He’s the next Bill Clinton, if anything.
This is so effing ridiculous… And THAT’s your defense? Retard!
And if you say Obama is so thrifty, they why the hell do you have any ground to criticize Bush as all? If you think Obama looks like Bill Clinton, then Bush must look like freaking Coolidge!
WVR, those arguments are absurd. add up the total amount of spending this guy has proposed in the last six WEEKS. it is staggering. give him four years & he’ll make FDR look like clark howard. he’s talking about a GLOBAL new deal now, for god’s sake.
he’s talking about a GLOBAL new deal now, for god’s sake.
And has been since his campaign began. I have hated being right about him this whole time.
Obama is not the next FDR. He’s the next Bill Clinton
You’re kidding right?
Obama is the next Jimmy Carter!
If he was the next Bill Clinton we’d be planning a budget surplus in four years, not a record debt and a stock market diving toward 3000....
So FDR managed to get 20% unemployment 6 years after he wsa elected. Obama ain’t spending proportionally as much-hmmm maybe we’ll only have 15% unemployment in Obama’s second term
Quoting Drum and Cole as support for your position is too hilarious to even bother writing a detailed response.
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