A couple quick flashbacks here to Obama's promises when he first ran for president to his assertions in his latest interview with George Stephanopoulos.
National Debt- 2008, Senator Barack Obama:
The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.
Video below (39 seconds) of Obama's comments quoted above:
The debt is now over $16 trillion, having risen over $6 trillion in just four years under Obama, so, using Obama's very own words, one could say "The problem is, is that the way
His words, just the names and accurate numbers have been inserted to reflect current information, who the president is, how much the debt is and how much each man, woman and child is now responsible for.
Now, in 2013, with over $16 trillion in debt, Obama tells ABC News "We Don’t Have An Immediate Crisis In Terms Of Debt."
Moving along...
Deficit - 2009, Barack Obama:
But I am also convinced that the only way we can make these investments, in our future, is if our Government starts living within it's means. We start taking responsibility for our deficits. That's why, when I was sworn in as president, I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term. The Budget I am proposing today meets that pledge, puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade.
Video below (30 seconds) of Obama's pledge quoted above:
The deficit has topped a trillion dollars for four straight years. Deficits as a share of GDP in the past four years have been the highest since 1947.
Broken promise.
Obama said in 2009 that "the only way we can make these investments, in our future, is if our Government starts living within it's means."
That means balancing the budget, not spending more than we take in... yet, in his interview with ABC News, Obama now says "My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance." Later in the interview Obama also says "We’re not gonna balance the budget in ten years...."
Obama has no intention of balancing the budget and without another election on the horizon, he doesn't even pretend to be working towards that goal anymore.
Look at the chart below:
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According to the Social Security Administration Trustees Report "Projected long-range costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing and will require legislative action to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers. If lawmakers act sooner rather than later, they can consider more options and more time will be available to phase in the changes, giving the public adequate time to prepare. Earlier action would also help avoid adverse impacts on vulnerable populations, including lower-income workers and people dependent on program benefits."
They are telling Washington that these issues must be addressed sooner rather than later.
Our spending levels on entitlement programs are unsustainable and Obama's last tax increase on upper income Americans, netted during the fiscal cliff battle, made it so upper income Americans' tax bills are approaching a 30 year high already, so Washington cannot continue to raid their bank accounts.
Entitlement programs must be reformed, yet the only person to date, willing to address the issue, which is not a popular issue, has been Paul Ryan's budget.
Forcing Obama and Democrats to address tax reforms, entitlement reforms and to cut spending won't be easy, as the recent sequester battle proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. Fact Checkers busted Obama and his administration on no less than six huge lies as he traveled the country, with the sole purpose of terrifying Americans so they would prevent Republicans from forcing Obama to cut scheduled increases in spending.
Read that last line again.... Obama lied and fought so hard, not against true spending cuts but to undo automatic reductions (sequester) to automatic increases in federal spending.
Then to prevent Republicans from insisting on true cuts, instead of applying those automatic reductions to increased spending in a manner that would barely be felt by Americans, his administration, as per a leaked email, has ordered agency heads to maximize the damage with those reductions instead of applying them to wasteful spending.
"So, it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be."
Obama has no intention of balancing the budget as he stated in the interview above, no intention of supporting any meaningful reforms that would make Medicare and Social Security sustainable in the long run, and no intention of cutting true spending and wasteful spending.
We the people, must force the politicians in Washington, including Barack Obama, to address these issues with more than talk. Calls, emails, contacting Congress and especially elections are the tools and the power of the people.
Use them.