I’ve maintained a strong interest in the long-term budget proposed by President Obama, and his press conference last night renewed some of my concerns. Frankly, I’m conflicted about it. I understand and appreciate his attempt to fix some of the hard problems that are facing America, but I’m also concerned about the future and what the nation would be like if the budget back-fired.
Energy
We need an energy policy – yes. We need a sustainable way to provide power for future generations. I tend to agree with T. Boone Pickens, in that our reliance on foreign oil is more of a national security problem than a economic problem, but it’s most certainly both. I’m curious why Obama didn’t use some stimulus money to build nuclear power plants or wind farms, instead helping cities like Dallas build fancy government-run hotels.
Health care
No question health care is a burden to many families. Hey, I just had a baby and my family’s healthcare costs are increasing 1,000%. Trust me, when I learned that, you better believe I said “bring on socialism!”. In all seriousness, health care is a real problem we need to confront, particularly medicare and medicaid. Cutting-edge technology and treatment options aren’t getting cheaper, so the bottom line is the government will have to take more money. I don’t see any other way around that.
Education
We’re falling behind – no doubt. I’m not sure that it’s because we don’t invest enough, I think it may be more attributable to a culture that is becoming more lazy. Japanese, Indian, Chinese – they are all more driven than ever, while the American student is less driven and feels more of a sense of entitlement. I’m not sure that spending a ton of money on education will reverse that trend, unfortunately.
The budget and the future
If I’m reading Obama’s budget properly, he makes some pretty presumptuous assumptions and even with those the debt is staggering in 5 and 10 years. I applaud him for including all spending, including military operational spending, in the budgets – definitely should have happened with GWB. But this budget…it’s like he’s going “all-in” with the USA. If something unexpected happens (terrorist attack, natural disaster, pandemic, etc.) in the next ten years, we have no emergency fund. Our emergency fund so far has been the Chinese, and their patience is waning.
The president enjoys lambasting the investors and speculators who took huge risks and helped cripple the economy, but I’m really struggling to see how this kind of government spending is not equally as risky.
Please…chime in with your thoughts below.
Tyson News, Politics
