Obama "Humphreys" the Deficit by Setting Up a Panel

by executive fiat to study how to reduce federal deficit.

What's "Humphrey", you ask? It's from Sir Humphrey Appleby, a fictional character in a British comedy, a staunch defender of the status quo, who advises a newbie Minister that they form a committee when they don't want to find out about anything.

Obama sets up deficit panel without help from Hill (2/18/2010 AP via Yahoo Finance)

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday unilaterally creating a bipartisan commission to rein in unruly deficits after Congress rejected a similar body with considerably more enforcement power.

"In making the announcement, Obama said that unless lawmakers put aside partisan differences, the continuing red-ink trend could "hobble our economy."

"The federal deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion last year and could grow larger this year as the struggling economy puts a big dent in tax collections.

""It will cloud our future and it will saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden," he said before signing an executive order establishing the commission." [The article continues.]

Is this some kind of sick joke? This guy is surpassing FDR in terms of government spending; he just signed a bill that raised the debt limit by $1.9 billion which may carry us till the end of February; his 2011 budget is $3.8 trillion.

He IS the cause for "the continuing red-ink trend", and he is the one who "will cloud our future and saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden". The red-ink trend will continue not because of partisan differences but because of his government's spending.

I can tell him, so can the majority of this country, how to reduce deficit without wrecking the country's tax-paying middle class and without creating a panel stuffed with some august appointees.

Stop spending.

(By the way, speaking of executive orders, do you remember what Obama's last two executive orders were? One was to confer full diplomatic immunity to INTERPOL, and the other was to create the council of governors for national security.)

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