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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Obama needs a dictionary

An interesting observation about Barack Obama's view of the world from CNSNEWS.COM:
Obama Used 'Invest' or 'Investment' 18 Times in Press Conference to Describe Government Deficit Spending

By Terence P. Jeffrey,
Editor-in-Chief

In Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary the first meaning listed for the word "investment" is "the outlay of money usually for income or profit," and the meaning of the word "invest" is "to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return."

The idea is that investing money is something private individuals and businesses do on the calculation that they will get back more money than they put into a particular enterprise.

In his prime-time Tuesday press conference, however, President Barack Obama used the words "invest" or "investment" 18 different times to describe the deficit spending he wants the federal government to undertake in pursuit of his budget plan.

When the government engages in deficit spending it has to borrow money — part of it from foreign sources — and then charge future taxpayers to pay the interest on the borrowed money. As long as the government's loans are not paid off, the taxpayers must continue paying interest on the debt year after year — just as an individual citizen would need to pay interest year after year on a credit card whose principal is never paid down.

The money that goes each year to pay the growing interest on the federal government's credit card cannot be "invested" by private citizens and businesses to create jobs and grow the economy.
Read the full column at CNSNEWS.COM

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