Good or Bad Economy, We’re in Trouble

Whether or not the economy and the labor market are improving, we will still be left with an overconfident President for the next four years. If we create jobs and growth we will hear the triumph of President Obama’s economic policies and how they worked to free us from the fear of another recession. If we tumble further down the rabbit hole of anemic growth and rising unemployment then we will hear that it’s because we haven’t raised enough revenue through taxes.

President Obama spoke this weekend on CBS and his message was no different than before: “There is no doubt we need additional revenue.” What’s appalling to me is the sheer arrogance of a man who gets what he wants and then continues to ask for more. The fiscal cliff was partially solved through raising tax revenue for the government; however, this policy goal was not coupled with a strict plan of necessary spending reduction. To put this more colloquially, would a credit card company really authorize such an out of control spender that had no plan of paying off their debt? Doubtful.

I agree with many out there that this fight over the debt ceiling and the fiscal cliff have been delayed and propagandized long enough. But, I will not have such irrational spending plans be the answer. Call me selfish, but it is my generation that will eventually have to pay for all this out-of-control spending along with a ballooning social security fund—which, by the way, my generation will reap none of the benefits of—and don’t forget our wonderful educational programs that slapped us with a large bill of student loans that we must repay by acquiring jobs that do not exist. This is the economy we look forward to due to bickering political positions.

This is not how the economy is supposed to work. Let’s leave the economic policy initiatives to those who studied economic policy and, when we are growing again, we can share it better with those who need it. Government finances are not so different from family finances—eventually you must cut costs to balance the checkbook.