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Comment on the Obama Administration's Spending Proposals

February 27, 2009

Its recent budget, economic stimulus and financial stabilization proposals make me fear that the Obama administration is just as profligate as the Bush administration was. Trillions of dollars of new deficit spending are being proposed, but I don't believe our country can borrow its way out of this recession. It is an unsustainable expansion of credit that created our economic problems in the first place. Instead of continuing along that course, we must adjust to an economy not dependent on over-inflated credit.

Considering the unprecedented federal budgetary deficit we already face, new spending proposals should focus on, and be limited to, measures that mitigate the worst aspects of this recession: the steep decline in durable goods purchases, state budgetary shortfalls, and the expiration of unemployment benefits. Federal initiatives to address these problems should be measured in hundreds of billions, not trillions, of dollars. In my view, any new federal spending beyond this is fiscally irresponsible at this time.