Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
Let's start at the beginning: Government does not produce wealth. It only takes from others.
So, if job growth is primarily in the government sector -- which it has been lately -- that's only adding to future debt. Future taxpayers will have to work that much harder to support all those government workers.
Thus, President Obama's entire economic approach, put into use in his massive $787 billion "stimulus" plan, hurt the country in two ways: It not only put America another $787 billion into debt, but it also sank money into furthering government jobs at every level, jobs that, again, future taxpayers will have to support.
For Mr. Obama to now say that we must "get serious" about reducing debt is beyond disingenuous. No president ever added more of it.
Indeed, the federal budget deficit for the year that ended Sept. 30 was $1.42 trillion -- three times the prior year's deficit. That means the government spent $1.42 trillion more than it took in, in just one year.
And the Obama administration admits that yearly deficits will total another $9 trillion in the next decade unless something is done.
Meanwhile, Obama and the Democrats have proposed a $1 trillion expenditure on health-care reform. And their proposed "cap and trade" limits on greenhouse gas emissions will most likely take the legs out from under any feeble recovery that's under way -- meaning weaker revenues to the government and even higher debt totals.
"Get serious" about debt, Mr. President? All evidence to the contrary.
The president's approach has been the precise opposite of what was needed. Instead of reducing taxes and cutting government and stimulating the private sector, the president's "stimulus" plan was about stimulating government spending -- which, as we all know from above, is accomplished by taking money out of the private sector.
"Nearly three quarters of the jobs Georgia officials say were created or saved through federal stimulus spending in the state are in state or local governments or public school systems," reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
Again, that only adds to the burden of government debt in the long run.
Get serious? Get serious! If this administration were serious about debt reduction, it wouldn't continue adding to it.
