The President has announced his new “jobs” package, the centerpiece of which is a small commitment to infrastructure spending. I say a “small” commitment, because by most estimates the transportation infrastructure deficit in this country is in the trillions of dollars, and the President has proposed a $50 billion package of spending. So this new proposal is not, and is not intended to be, a well planned, long term proposal to meet the transportation needs of the country. If the President had really wanted to modernize our transportation system, he would have spent most or all of the first “stimulus” package on transportation in early 2009. In fact, only a small percentage of that spending went for roads, highways, and rail, and none of it was used for the even more pressing responsibility of the federal government: defense. None of the funds included in the first “stimulus” went toward buying new ships, planes, and vehicles for a military that is operating with an inventory of equipment that is aging and out of date.
Of all the sins of the Obama Presidency, the worst is the tremendous burden of the federal debt on the backs of every man, woman and child. Americas is nearly $3 trillion dollars more in debt than we were before Barack Obama became President. It certainly didn’t have to be that way. In the twelve years that the Republicans controlled Congress, they made a start at getting the budget under control. In three of those years, the budget was actually in surplus; the average deficit during that time was about $100 billion (approximately one/fifteenth of what it has been under Obama). America suffered a deadly attack and a recession in 2001, and the deficit surged, but by 2006, when the Democrats took over the Congress, the deficit had been reduced and the government was actually projecting surpluses in the near future. All of that progress has now been squandered; trillions more have been borrowed, and there is nothing to show for it.
I am an incurable optimist where the United States is concerned. The voting public is about to act. The new Congress will be very different from the current one. We will begin the path back to greatness, and the inherent dynamism and genius of America is such that the recovery of our fortunes may well be faster than we have any right to expect. Those in the world who wish us ill are going to be surprised, once again, at the resiliency of the United States.
But in the meantime, we must mourn the decline of our fortunes. The illogic of this waste – the sheer stupidity of it – beggars description.