Election 2012

Now that Romney has endorsed the Paul Ryan Budge Plan, President Obama’s bid for a second term is a done deal. The Ryan Plan tackles the entitlements by offering changes in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. His plan was approved by all of the Republicans in the house and 40 of the 48 Republicans in the senate. While the Ryan Plan is courageous in its willingness to challenge the long term problems associated with the national debt, it is political suicide. While everyone knows that the only way the government can control long term spending is to reform entitlements, the President’s Plan does nothing in this area. The President’s Plan was defeated in the House by a vote of 414 to 0. Not one Democrat voted for his plan. The senate refused to vote on it so President Obama is now in the enviable position of being able to go to the voters and offer them financial benefits while the Republicans will be accused of reducing benefits. In the past both parties stayed away from reforming entitlements because they knew it would cost them the election, so these areas continued to grow at a rate that is not sustainable. The only remaining stumbling block in the President’s way is gas prices but it is not likely that even five dollar gas can overcome pushing Grandma off the cliff. The Presidents strategy of focusing on jobs and avoiding the budget deficit is paying off and once again the problem of long term debt is pushed down the road for some future President and congress to confront. We will continue to spend money we don’t have and pass that on to the next generation and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Good luck to all of the millennials out there just starting their careers, as we leave you with 16 trillion in debt on the way to 21 trillion in five years. It is hard to believe that by the end of Obama’s second term we have increased the debt by more than we did in the first 230 years.