I found proposals for the 2012 federal budget - particularly cuts in federal spending for home heating assistance for the poor and Pell grants for college students - to be appalling. I wouldn't have been so appalled by the cuts if they had been proposed by the Republicans; given their history of budget priorities, that would be expected of them. But these proposed cuts came from the White House's $3.7 trillion budget blueprint!
You know, when I voted for Obama in 2008, I thought I was voting for a Democrat. Now I know how all those budget hawks who supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 felt when they were thought they were voting for a conservative.
President Obama did try to appease his base with increases in education spending as well as increased spending on high-speed rail projects and alternative energy, but the attempt to trim the deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade by freezing various spending programs at current levels without reforming social programs like Medicare hasn't impressed anyone. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) finds the plan too timid, as does House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). And Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell couldn't resist a jab at Obama's plans for spending money on rail transit and clean energy as money for "trains and windmills," as if they were toys. In McConnell's home state of Kentucky, where almost no one uses any kind of public transit and where the economy depends on coal mining, trains and windmills probably are thought of as toys.
Yes, yes, you say, Obama's domestic spending cuts are all too bad, but he has to prioritize his own goals and make concessions to the Republicans who control the House to get anything done. Yeah, how's that working out so far? I'd rather see Obama act like Harry Truman and fight the opposition to the bitter end, as Truman did against the Republican Eightieth Congress of 1947 and 1948. Chris Matthews suggested that possibility once, and Pat Buchanan replied with a stinging rejoinder. "Chris," Buchanan said of Obama, "do you see any of Harry Truman in this guy?"
Buchanan has a point. I don't even see any of Harry Reid in this guy.
So, we won't get much in the way of high-speed rail spending, we won't get any clean energy programs, and we'll get even more draconian domestic spending cuts when the negotiations are completed between the White House and Congress and the smoke clears.
Three weeks ago, Obama spoke of a Sputnik moment. This budget is our Kaputnik moment.
In that spirit, to sum up our national predicament, I present a video clip of the failed Vanguard TV3 "Kaputnik" satellite launch of December 6, 1957.
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It is heartening to think that satellites eventually did make it into orbit, albeit after another nation had done so. Given that other nations have already implemented lean transportation and robust energy, we can always hope for a successful launch someday.
The nice part of this metaphor is that eventually this program performed a successful launch. Unfortunately, many scientists were fired as a result of the first failure, but you've properly identified the dead weight in this case.
I think the Vanguard TV3 analogy is appropriate here, if only because this administration started off with high hopes and hasn't gotten off the ground. But yes, there is hope that Obama can somehow get things going after a false start, if only because the Republicans are devoid of any clue or understanding of the situation.
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