Obama's big spending is real, the funding imaginary

It is beginning to look as if President Obama looks upon his constituents, including those of us who are among the unwilling, as fools.


The latest evidence is his statement that he is about to embark on a deficit-cutting campaign by raising taxes on high-income earners. This, and cuts in war spending, he says, will whittle the deficits by as much as half.


Don't believe it. The deficits are real. The deficits that will materialize over the next several years just grew by a cumulative $1 trillion because of Obama's so-called stimulus package. That money will be spent.


The proposals to increase revenue, on the other hand, are theoretical at best, a head-fake at worst. They will require action by Congress. A wink here and a nod there, and Congress could kill any proposal to raise revenue, leaving the deficits at dangerous levels while absolving Obama of blame. His allies can say he tried.


This is not to impute insincerity to Obama. This is the way Washington works. If a real, intractible problem rears its head, invent a magical, theoretical solution to make it go away, at least for the time being.

Sure, the real problem will return. So what? There are always more theoretical solutions in the politicians' magic bag.

Obama is viewed favorably by 63 percent of Americans, while only 33 percent approve of Congress's performance, according to the Rasmussen Poll. In a face-off, Obama would have a clear advantage. But a faceoff is unlikely given that Congress approved the stimulus bill before any member of Congress could have known what was in it.