LorieByrd.com

My New Column -- Bazillions of Dollars

The United States government is currently a bazillion dollars in debt and is continuing to engage in bazillons more in deficit spending each year.  The amounts of the debt and deficit are actually counted in trillions, but it might as well be bazillions.  The amount is so large that it is impossible for most to comprehend, so a fictitious number representing an unfathomable amount seems fitting.

The Associated Press reported this week, “Figures released by the White House budget office foresee a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more than the administration estimated in May. Moreover, the figures show the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy. Obama economic adviser Christina Romer predicted unemployment could reach 10 percent this year and begin a slow decline next year. Still, she said, the average unemployment will be 9.3 in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010.”

 Reuters reported, “The spending blitz could push the national debt, now more than $11 trillion, to close to $20 trillion.”  Twenty trillion?  A bazillion?  They both sound equally unreal.  In an effort to put the current economic situation into perspective, Mark Tapscott cited Brian Reidl at the Heritage Foundation.

· This year, Washington will spend $30,958 per household, tax $17,576 per household, and borrow $13,392 per household. This spending is not just temporary: President Obama would permanently keep annual spending between $5,000 and $8,000 per household higher than it had been under President Bush.

· The 22 percent spending increase projected for 2009 represents the largest government expansion since the 1952 height of the Korean War (adjusted for inflation). Federal spending is up 57 percent since 2001.

 

· The 2009 budget deficit will be larger than all budget deficits from 2002 through 2007 combined. More than 43 cents of every dollar Washington spends in 2009 will have been borrowed.

 

· One would expect the post-recession deficit to revert back to the $150 billion to $350 billion budget deficits that were typical before the recession. Instead, by 2019, the President forecasts a $917 billion budget deficit, a public debt of 77 percent of GDP, and annual net interest spending of $774 billion.

 

· The White House projects $10.6 trillion in new deficits between 2009 and 2019—nearly $80,000 per household in new borrowing.

 

· The White House underestimates future budget deficits by trillions of dollars by (1) assuming that discretionary spending will be frozen to inflation for the next decade, (2) assuming that cap-and-trade revenues will be available to finance a Make Work Pay credit (the House-passed bill allocates those revenues elsewhere), (3) assuming health care reform will be deficit-neutral, and (4) assuming certain tax increases that are unlikely to be enacted.

 

Reidl also notes that none of the estimates mentioned include the cost of proposed health care legislation, or the coming increased costs from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Not only are the numbers almost impossible to comprehend, but the overall state of the economy is difficult to grasp. In addition to the problem of unprecedented spending, a recent report in the Wall Street Journal points to problems with the value of the dollar. 

Neil Shah wrote, “In a new twist to an old refrain among economists, who have long worried about the effects of growing U.S. debt, they say that the huge liabilities the U.S. is taking on to dig its way out of crisis could ultimately undermine faith in the dollar.”  Shah quoted Clair Dissaux, managing director of global economics and strategy for Millennium Global Investments Ltd., a London investment firm specializing in currencies, “There has been a lot of disappointment with the way the U.S. credit crisis was handled. The dollar's loss of influence is a steady and long-term trend.”

Unfortunately it does not appear there is any quick and easy way out of the current economic abyss, but at the very least we have to stop the runaway spending.  There can come a point when a personal debt becomes so excessive that there is no possible way to pay it off in a lifetime without a considerable increase in income .  Many of those in power today evidently don’t find the governments’ ratio of debt to income to be a problem as long as there are future generations to stick with the tab.

The trillions of dollars of deficit spending projected over the next decade are difficult to fully comprehend.  Just think of the number as bigger than anything you can imagine and you’ll be getting close though.  It isn’t necessary to refer to the numbers in “bazillions.”  There are many other fine fictional numbers – katrillion, gazillion and the very similar, bajillion – available as well.

Posted at American Issues Project.com.

Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at 77

Kevin Aylward just posted news of Kennedy's death at Wizbang.

Here is a link to a post I wrote about Kennedy when he was diagnosed.

On the Air

Today I will join a couple of my favorite North Carolina bloggers, John Hawkins and Scott Elliott, on the Bill LuMaye show on AM 680 WPTF. This will be the first radio show I have done "in studio" so I am looking forward to getting a behind the scenes look. If you are in the Raleigh listening area tune in at 4:10 p.m. If you aren't you can go to the WPTF website to listen online.

New at Townhall

I have a new column up at Townhall.com, Obama's Kryptonite. In it I discuss some of the reasons Obama's approval numbers have taken a dive. John Hawkins has a great column at Townhall today about five liberal lies about Obamacare. There is lots of other good stuff there too, including one of my favorite columnists -- David Limbaugh.  Check it out.

Gotta love this pic

I found this picture at Lucianne's site and just couldn't resist passing it on.

A "Miracle Child" Mom's Health Care Plea (Molly Kate Update)

If you have been reading my blogging since 2004 you might remember "Miracle Child" Molly Kate. Her mom tells her story and her reasons for opposing any form of government run health care system in an open letter to President Obama (posted at Hot Air). Here is an excerpt:

Our daughter has hydrocephalus and this chronic and incurable condition has required 58 surgeries and numerous tests and hospitalizations through out her 22 years. I can speak to the current controversy over "health care reform" with our long experience with American health care and insurance.

I believe our current health care system, even while riddled with imperfections and purposeful corruption (mostly done by the government), is the absolute best in the world. I would not trade one second of our experience for any other alternative system here, or anywhere else on the planet. And I'd pay again every cent of the hundreds of thousands of dollars we (and our insurance company, a private company we contracted with by choice) paid to keep our daughter alive. No one ever questioned our choice to do everything possible to save our daughter. We did not have to answer to any bureaucrat why she was less valuable or viable than any other child or debate the merits or costs of countless surgeries for a condition that would certainly require more. When she needed care, she got it immediately, without applying to an office for approval. When we ran out of insurance (at surgery 37), we fought for another way and got it through a group healthcare plan for our business. Which had the advantage of giving our 15 employees health care too...there are silver linings even in the worse situations. We gave up many things for the rest of our family and our future to ensure her health care. But, really, we would do it all again.

Read the rest at Hot Air.

Also posted at Wizbang.

My New AIP Column: Polls Show There Never Was a Liberal Mandate

According to the most recent polls, the President’s approval numbers are dropping like a rock. Perhaps of even greater concern to the President are the numbers for the generic congressional ballot showing Republicans ahead of Democrats for the past eight weeks. November 2010 is an eternity away in political time, but the numbers today are something that should be of great concern to Democrats and the President. The numbers are also evidence that many winners in the 2008 election misread their mandate.

The latest Gallup poll shows presidential approval at 51 percent, with 41 percent disapproval. To understand just how much that number has changed since the President took office in January, consider that the numbers in the same poll for the January 21-23 period were 68-12 percent. A gap of 56 percent between approval and disapproval has shrunken to 10 percent.

Americans voted on an agenda of “hope ‘n change” (whatever that is), but I would argue many voted on the basis of personality and image. They chose the young, black fist-bumping rock star over the man often caricatured as a cranky, old white guy. The vote was about change from what was, rather than a vote in favor of any specific agenda.  Since Obama provided few policy details during the campaign, he made quite a leap to interpret the election results as a mandate for the liberal agenda he has pursued as president, and now that is being reflected in opinion polls.

The President has three years to change course before facing the voters again, but the same cannot be said for the congressional Democrats he depends on to pass the legislation he wants.

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, “43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.”  Of even greater significance, independent voters now favor the GOP 45%-18%.  The same poll now even shows women preferring the GOP over Democrats.

Another Rasmussen poll shows respondents for the first time in over two years trusting Republicans more on the issue of health care.

Americans are not thrilled with the change they have gotten.  The bailouts and stimulus plan were answered with protests which, in a matter of months, became the Tea Party movement.  But the debate over health care is what has elicited the most intense public reaction.  That is not surprising considering health care is such an incredibly personal issue.

The President and Democrats have gotten into trouble with the public because they believed voters gave them the congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 because they wanted a more liberal government. If Democrats won elections by campaigning as liberals, explaining the specifics of their policy proposals, that might be true. 

What is more often the case is that those who win elections campaign as conservatives or moderates.  Unfortunately that does not mean they govern that way. Obama and the Democrats criticized George Bush for spending and running up deficits, but within months of taking office added trillions of dollars of deficit spending. 

Just because voters were angry at corporate executives collecting big bonuses at the same time thousands of people were losing their jobs, did not mean they wanted the government deciding how much money those in private enterprise could make. 

Just because voters wanted the American car industry to survive and thrive, did not mean they wanted the government to go into the car business -- deciding which executives should be hired and fired and guaranteeing car warranties.

Just because voters wanted change from what have been increasingly high health care costs, did not mean they wanted a plan that would give the government so much control over the industry.

Americans did not vote for a far left agenda, even though they voted for one of the most liberal presidential candidates in the history of the country. Those who interpreted the 2006 and 2008 elections as major shifts to the left, or any kind of mandate to govern from the far left, misjudged the results.

Originally posted at American Issues Project.

RIP Robert Novak

Fred Barnes has a nice tribute to his friend, Robert Novak, who passed away yesterday at the age of 78.

It’s not too much to call Novak journalism’s last honest man in Washington. Ideologically, he was conservative, the more so the older he grew. He was quite up front about this. But he didn’t cover for his allies or mistreat his adversaries. If a conservative Republican disappointed him, Novak would let you know.

He was unique in another way: his reporting. His column, which he wrote for four decades with Rowland Evans, had a slant and plenty of analysis. Its strength, however, consisted of big scoops or nuggets of fresh reporting. No other columnist could match this. Appearing three days a week in the Washington Post, it was a column that couldn’t be ignored.

The relentless, remorseless reporter -- the Prince of Darkness, as he fashioned himself publicly -- was only one side of Bob Novak. The other was a kind man, a patriot, a doting grandfather, a pal of liberal and conservative journalists alike, and a mentor to many younger men in the media, including me.

Myrick to hold Townhall meetings

Sue Myrick will be holding the following town hall meetings (via Under the Dome):

- August 25 at Weddington High School Auditorium, 4901 Monroe Weddington Road, Matthews, 6:30 p.m.

- August 26 at J.V. Washam Elementary School Gymnasium, 9611 Westmoreland Road Cornelius, 7 p.m.

- August 27 at Gaston Day School Auditorium, 2001 Gaston Day School Road, Gastonia, 7 p.m.

Where to find me

My blogging has been a bit sparse (okay, practically non-existent) lately.  I have been writing though.  Here are a few places you can find me.

Twitter -- not technically blogging, I suppose, but definitely micro-blogging. Follow me on Twitter.

Townhall.com -- My latest column is about why the health care debate has inspired such an intense response from so many Americans.

American Issues Project -- My latest column is on the "manufactured" anger on display in town hall meetings across the country.

Lemondrop.com -- I talk about how the modern day woman differs from the feminist stereotype.