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Monday, January 12, 2009

Columnist: Obama spending spree not the answer

Stan Huskey, editor of the Norristown Times Herald, has an "I told you so" moment regarding President-elect Barack Obama's proposal to spend our way out of the current recession.

From Huskey's weekly column:
This is what I talked about all along leading up to the election, my friends: Big government. Obama even talked about how Bush made the federal government bigger than it was before he took office, and now he wants to expand it even farther.
For all those people who voted for Barack Obama because you were mad that George W. Bush cut taxes and ran up a huge deficit, what do you have to say now? Obama's "recovery" plan in a nut-shell: Cut taxes and run up big deficits.

I recall John McCain promising he would freeze federal spending if he was elected president. What a radical concept. Freeze spending. Live within your means. No wonder McCain lost the election.

Huskey takes Obama up on his call for suggestions on dealing with the current economic mess.

From Huskey's column:
He called for the modernization of 75 percent of federal buildings, improving energy efficiency in two million homes, putting Americans to work building solar panels and wind turbines and constructing fuel-efficient automobiles, and having all medical records computerized within the next five years.

I'm going to offer up a little advice, because, well, he asked for it. He said he was "calling on all Americans — Democrats and Republicans — to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles; sense of common purpose above the same narrow partisanship; and insist that the first question each of us ask isn't, 'What's good for me?' but 'What's good for the country my children will inherit?'"

OK, here's what I think will be good for the country my children will inherit.

All of those things he talked about doing, putting Americans to work building solar panels and wind turbines, which, by the way, is a great idea, he should let, nay require, private enterprise to do. Let’s not forget that during this great economic recession that Obama seems determined to use to scare the bejeesus out of us, Big Oil has been making big bucks. They should fund the drive for alternative energy sources, and they will if they can make money out of it somewhere down the road.

Digitizing all of the medical records is a great idea, too. How about we put that task to the pharmaceutical giants? Just so you know, the health care industry is actually growing.

Look, what made this country great are the pioneers who settled the West, the men who built the railroads, the minds that started the industrial revolution, not the government.
Read the full column, "Spending spree not the answer," at the newspaper's Web site.

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