Making Progress By Assuming Infinity
Say remember this?
click for larger image
That's the chart that shows the Obama administration & CBO's projected deficits based on the Obama administration's budget plan. We've got a new little development to it. It was, apparently, too optimistic. (h/t Ed)
So those numbers above? We're not actually expecting to hit those numbers anymore. Now we're planning on them being even worse - even bigger deficits in the short term as well as the long term.
This is, of course, being entirely ignored by a fawning media who still want to declare O-ba-ma! the greatest president evah! on the basis of his first 100 days in office. That would be the period within which he delivered that little plan charted out above. Ginormous structural deficits ballooning as far as the eye can see are apparently now evidence of progress.
Which reminds me I keep meaning to ask all those "Progressives" what it is we're supposed to be "progessing" toward. Because if that chart above is any indication, it's not going to be a very pleasant destination.
Not that I seriously expect much of a rational explanation from the "progressive" wing. Trying to follow their reasoning so far, they seem to believe that the Bush deficits were totally awful and irresponsible. But Obama is not Bush. Therefore his doubling or tripling of the deficit isn't a problem. I mean just, duh. That's reality-based.
Call me crazy, but I have a feeling there might be a negative effect or two from trying to run the nation on a credit card indefinitely. And maybe... just maybe... O-ba-ma! might not remain so popular if people ever come to share that opinion.
As anyone with even basic experience running a project knows, assuming infinite resources can make it look like you can accomplish anything. And as long as no one actually expects you to deliver, I suppose that's a neat trick. But when it's time to deliver (which may be a moment Obama has yet to experience in his professional life), that "infinite resources" assumption tends to bite back hard. And when your "project" is "The United States of America," people may get a wee bit impatient if your delivery schedule slips as a result.
click for larger image
That's the chart that shows the Obama administration & CBO's projected deficits based on the Obama administration's budget plan. We've got a new little development to it. It was, apparently, too optimistic. (h/t Ed)
So those numbers above? We're not actually expecting to hit those numbers anymore. Now we're planning on them being even worse - even bigger deficits in the short term as well as the long term.
This is, of course, being entirely ignored by a fawning media who still want to declare O-ba-ma! the greatest president evah! on the basis of his first 100 days in office. That would be the period within which he delivered that little plan charted out above. Ginormous structural deficits ballooning as far as the eye can see are apparently now evidence of progress.
Which reminds me I keep meaning to ask all those "Progressives" what it is we're supposed to be "progessing" toward. Because if that chart above is any indication, it's not going to be a very pleasant destination.
Not that I seriously expect much of a rational explanation from the "progressive" wing. Trying to follow their reasoning so far, they seem to believe that the Bush deficits were totally awful and irresponsible. But Obama is not Bush. Therefore his doubling or tripling of the deficit isn't a problem. I mean just, duh. That's reality-based.
Call me crazy, but I have a feeling there might be a negative effect or two from trying to run the nation on a credit card indefinitely. And maybe... just maybe... O-ba-ma! might not remain so popular if people ever come to share that opinion.
As anyone with even basic experience running a project knows, assuming infinite resources can make it look like you can accomplish anything. And as long as no one actually expects you to deliver, I suppose that's a neat trick. But when it's time to deliver (which may be a moment Obama has yet to experience in his professional life), that "infinite resources" assumption tends to bite back hard. And when your "project" is "The United States of America," people may get a wee bit impatient if your delivery schedule slips as a result.
Posted by Doug Williams on
Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 2:08pm
