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Why America’s Economy is Failing

The federal 2017 fiscal year began this month, and the news about its 2016 predecessor is deeply worrisome.

According to the Treasury Department, Washington spent more than $587 billion than it took in in revenue, a deficit that jumped 34% from last year. The government spent $3.9 trillion dollars, but took in “only” $3.3 trillion, a record high amount.  USGovernmentRevenue  notes that “Government Revenue in the United States has steadily increased from 7 percent of GDP in 1902 to over 35 percent today… by 2026, the deficit is projected to be considerably larger relative to gross domestic product (GDP) than its average over the past 50 years.”

The US Debt Clock notes that as of the time this report was being prepared, the federal debt was $19,703,158,000,000. In 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration, the debt was $10,024,724,896,912.49, as recorded by Polidiotic,  As a sign of the weakening economy, the federal budget deficit will increase in relation to economic output for the first time since 2009.

Relief is nowhere in sight, The Congressional Budget Office reports that “If current laws generally remained unchanged—an assumption underlying CBO’s baseline projections—deficits would continue to mount over the next 10 years, and debt held by the public would rise from its already high level.”

The Obama Administration has almost doubled the national debt. What’s worse, it has nothing to show for all that spending. It cannot blame the 2007—2009 recession (which was the result of federal policies that forced lending institutions to give credit to individuals with a poor prospects of paying it back.) “Even seven years after the recession ended, the current stretch of economic gains has yielded less growth than much shorter business cycles…In terms of average annual growth, the pace of [the post recession period]… has been by far the weakest of any since 1949” notes the Wall Street Journal.

The Obama approach to spending and federal budgeting has devastated the middle class. The Institute for Policy Innovation notes that when it comes to the middle class he “has failed miserably… Median household income is lower today than when he took office.” Senior Citizens have been poorly treated, receiving less in cost of living increases than they have at any time in decades.

Where has the money gone?

America’s infrastructure needs are certainly not being met.

The American Society of Civil Engineers “2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure” graded the nation’s infrastructure a “D+” . In 2013, for surface transportation categories:

  • Roads received a grade of D as compared to a grade of D- in 2009;
  • Bridges received a grade of C+, up from a C in 2009;
  • Transit received a D, showing no change from 2009; and
  • Rail received a grade of C+, up from a C-, the greatest increase in the 2009 Report Card.”

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There has been no noticeable improvement since that analysis was completed.

The spending hasn’t gone into defense, either.  In constant 2015 dollars, the Pentagon has been cut from $740 billion in 2009 to $525 billion in 2016, as reported by Heritage. Even crucial needs are going unmet. As Russia, China, and North Korea ramp up their nuclear arsenals, President Obama has actually decreased his funding requests for crucially needed missile defense. The last request by President Bush was for $9.3 billion; the 2016 request by President Obama was $8.1 billion. Nor has the current White House taken any effective action to protect the nation’s electrical grid from an EMP disaster resulting either from a natural occurrence or an enemy attack. Such an incident could destroy the entire U.S. electrical grid, resulting in massive casualties from the lack of power, shut down reservoirs, and the elimination of any means to transport food or provide medical care. Other more conventional military elements, such as manpower, have also been cut.  America’s Army is now smaller than North Korea’s, our navy is the smallest it has been since World War I, and the air force’s inventory of planes is the smallest and oldest it has been in the entire history of that service.

Even comparatively tiny federal programs have been slashed. NASA’s manned space flight effort was virtually eliminated by Obama.  The Space Shuttle program was prematurely shut down. Its planned successor was also cut. NASA will not be capable of putting an astronaut in space until the next decade. At a Congressional hearing earlier this year reported by the Daily Caller.  Rep. Brian Babin,(R-Texas)  chairman of the House Subcommittee on Space stated that the White House “budget takes our human spaceflight program nowhere fast. This budget undermines our space program and diverts critical funding to lower priority items…Orion and [the Space Launch System] are strategic national assets and must be sufficiently funded. Proposed cuts to the planetary science division are equally disturbing.”

The basic, and very expensive,  thrust of President Obama’s budgetary policies has been de-emphasizing a capitalist approach that, despite occasional recessions, was responsible for developing and maintaining the planet’s most robust economy, replacing it with one that more closely resembles the social democrat approaches of other nations, including large welfare programs (the supplemental nutrition assistance program has grown 42% under his watch) and the transformation of America’s medical system into a more federally centered effort. In large part, “Obamacare” is based on federal subsidies. Not unsurprisingly, many report that the quality of care has been reduced.

Mr. Obama’s emphasis on attempting to reduce poverty through vast spending programs has backfired. Indeed, the poverty rate has actually gone up on his watch, increasing from 13.2% in 2008 to 13.5%, while destabilizing the federal budget.

Attacking the engine of economic growth–the free market–with excess regulations and continued high taxes–while initiating massive spending on social programs driven more by ideology and politics than the hope of actually producing a growing economy has caused significant harm both to the federal budget and the overall economic health of the nation.