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Mr. Credibility

Quoth President Obama: "It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package, after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility."

By the time you read this column, there is no knowing what the size of Obama economic stimulus package will be. Just below $800 billion? A little more? Whatever the price tag ends up being, expect it to be a testament to the cynicism of D.C. Democrats.

Not that long ago, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were taking potshots at President George W. Bush for supporting deficit spending. Now that they're in power, they're spending money at record speed that Washington doesn't have. And they're still blaming the Republicans.

Will they ever be responsible for the choices they make? I can understand Obama talking about the economic ills which he inherited in terms of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's proposed $2.5 trillion bank bailout plan.

This is different. In November, the Obama stimulus package was supposed to cost about $300 billion. Now it has more than doubled in size.

Sure, as Obama noted, some of the president's Republican critics once supported big spending under George W. Bush. But there are high-profile Republicans — think GOP 2008 nominee John McCain — who fought against excessive spending in the Bush years. That is, McCain is being true to his principles in dismissing the stimulus package as "an act of generational theft."

As a rule, I don't criticize moderate Republicans who cut deals.

After all, it's their job to work with others. But I don't understand how GOP Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter can support a measure that grew from $300 billion to $838 billion.

Specter wrote in the Washington Post that he supported the package because America "cannot afford not to take action." No. America cannot afford a double-or-nothing roll of the dice that is sure to expand the deficit — the deficit Democrats used to lament.

Just a year ago, Pelosi was demanding that the Bush stimulus package be "timely," "targeted" and "temporary." Now, undaunted by the questionable results of the $168-billion Bush "booster shot," Pelosi's three-word mantra is "more, more, more."

Now the idea of restraining spending is a joke. Obama countered critics of his over-spending recently, as he quipped, "What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point. No, seriously. That's the point."

During a campaign debate last year, Obama chastised McCain's plan to freeze domestic spending, when he said to McCain, "The problem is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel."

It turns out that when Obama was talking about cutting excess spending with a scalpel, he was using a shovel.

E-mail Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@sfchronicle.com. To find out more about Debra J. Saunders, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Comments

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Ma'am; ... Don't try to put it in perspective... Don't try to criticize it, or support it... Does it seem like a lot of money??? Does it seem like too much??? Does it seem not enough??? Will it work, or will it not work??? Ma'am, it is too great for you... Perhaps it is too great for me... At least it would be, if it were real.... And it is not real... And it would not seem too much if it bought some unity from us; but if the government is any guide, it will not... What it will take to make us whole, to return all the wealth of this land to the people, to correct the injustices of many generations is not a cost any elected administration will willingly bear.... Sooner or later, the president will have his hand forced... When Lincoln became president the South was determined... The South is yet determined; but without that determination on the part of the South in Lincoln's day to have all, or lose all, there would have been no end to slavery; certainly not from a man who only wanted to limit slavery to its predetermined limits.... Capitalism will know no limits.... The religious right will know no law... Even the efforts of the government which will save them from destitution will be rejected politically... That is what ideology does to people... Ideas are the only thing that can make anyone act against ther own best interest.... And yet, is it against their best interest??? The people can clearly see that capitalism is a lost cause... They can clearly see the downside of endless national debt... No one sees that debt with greater alarm than those who have a little property...Even those who do not undestand that capitalism as it fails is the problem, when they strike, they will destroy what they seek to preserve... They will find just like the champions of slavery that all the profit has long been drained away to Wall Street.... Did you know that New York considered leaving the Union with the South... So many people in finance were living off slavery that the money for defense was long gone.... The same is true in America, that the profit has been robbed out of every business, most especially farming, by the demands of interest....Do you think it will come to a last lost cause defense of capital by the very people who have been so long bled white by it???Maybe people will realize that all the government is doing is thowing paper and numbers at a problem long in the making, and impossible to rectify... Maybe with your help, the losers on the right will join with the losers on the left and push our old failed government and old failed economy into oblivion...You will hear me cheer... And I will be sure to drop you a thank you card if there is still some one to deliver it... Thanks...Sweeney

Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:29 PM