Today in Washington D. C. - August 25. 2009 - The Major Pending National Train Wreck

Congress is still in recess until September 8th which is six days before the promised deadline set by Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid for voting on pending national health care (or its new euphemism - Insurance Reform). Can we afford for Congress to even return to the abused halls of Congress? Last week in the Friday afternoon news announcements, was the hint that the federal budget deficit over the next decade would be $2 trillion larger than previously estimated. The new projection by the GOA announced today was a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 trillion instead of the $7 trillion previously estimated. The excuse: slumping revenues. Of course they couldn't admit the enormous federal spending above mandated needs like the military, social security, etc. So what about TARP and the Stimulus and Auto bailout?

Well, they are arguing that the projected estimates for this year’s deficit may be $250 billion too high, because of money budgeted for TARP that wasn’t used. So instead of a $1.84 trillion deficit this year, the government may "only" have an additional $1.6 trillion shortfall. BIG DEAL! Consider this fact, a $1.6 trillion is more than 3.5 times last year’s record deficit of $455 billion. And the overall deficit of $9 trillion is 19.8 times, say 20 times, more than last years record deficit!

Even Democrats in Congress said that whatever health care bill emerges this fall will have to cost less than the $1 trillion price tag contemplated earlier this year. "It’s going to have to be significantly less than what we’ve heard talked about," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. . . . said on CBS’ Face the Nation. "We’ve got to have the deficit reduced as a result of this effort. That is absolutely imperative." Unfortunately, none of the health care bills currently being considered in Congress actually do that. According to a Reuters, budget experts agree that these numbers don’t bode well for Democrats’ health care plans. U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky) made the following statement today:

The alarm bells on our nation’s fiscal condition have now become a siren. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reports the deficit for this year alone is already nearly as high as the last five years—combined—and is only getting bigger. And, if anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they’re gone. Spending, borrowing and debt are out of control. Even the President’s own advisors acknowledge that the deficit in the coming years will be trillions more than projected just a few months ago.

The massive national debt threatens long term fiscal health as a nation, our national security and our ability to meet our commitments to seniors, veterans and working families. There are two immediate steps we should take. We should review the trillion dollars in borrowed stimulus money with an eye towards applying it to paying off the federal credit card. And we must take the bipartisan step of reforming entitlements to strengthen the fiscal state of our existing commitments.

Again, that is $9,000,000,000,000 deficit spending? This is the spending above the spending that is covered by revenue. Imagine what the total government spending over this period of time will be? Maybe all the local Pork is not worth what we are doing to our country and our children. And Obama wants another trillion for nationalized health care to be covered by what he claims is "savings and more taxes. Where is the sanity? - Can anyone say NO!

Now, how does the Obama administration take the focus off this deficit? It feeds the media another story. Right on schedule, the Obama administration delivers the diversion. Attorney General Eric Holder announces the a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation tactics. Holder is going to investigate the people who have kept us safe from the terrorists that have and are attacking America, while the Obama administration masks the attack on America via wasteful and unneeded spending domestically and overseas. Where is the sanity? - It appears there is NONE!

Criticizing Attorney General Eric Holder for saying back in April that “[I]t would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,” the Wall Street Journal editors write, "Mr. Holder had it right the first time. His about-face yesterday, compounded by his release of a 2004 internal CIA report on that agency’s handling of terrorists, opens a political war that President Obama, the CIA and above all the country will live to regret."

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rightly points out: "We must remain mindful that we still are very much a nation at war with terrorists who spend every hour of their day planning how to hurt America and Americans. That’s why reports that the Department of Justice has directed a special prosecutor to investigate the men and women tasked with keeping America safe is such a poor and misguided decision. . . . [T]he administration risks chilling our defense and intelligence community’s ability to protect us from future terrorist attacks by reopening this matter." Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Kit Bond (R-MO) said, "With a criminal investigation hanging over the Agency’s head, every CIA terror fighter will be in CYA mode. With things heating up in Afghanistan and Iraq, this looking back and unwarranted ‘redo’ of prior Justice Department decisions couldn’t come at a worse time for the safety of our troops in harm’s way and our nation."

Beyond the fact that it’s simply a bad idea to reopen this can of worms, the appointment of a special prosecutor means this investigation could go way beyond its stated scope. According to the LA Times, "Unfortunately, the pressure . . . to indict someone will be overwhelming," said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior CIA official. "That will produce ‘two simultaneous unappealing outcomes," he said. "Half the population will think it is a whitewash and the right people weren’t indicted. And half the population will think it is a lynch mob." "If the White House thinks they can control this," Lowenthal said, "they aren’t nearly as smart as I think they are."

In a letter to Holder, Sens. Kit Bond, Jon Kyl, Jeff Sessions, and other GOP senators similarly warned "there is a real risk that [this] announcement portends a long, arduous, and unpredictable process for the intelligence community." The Wall Street Journal agrees, noting that "special prosecutions, once unleashed, have often been impossible to control." The LA Times writes, "At a time when health care and other signature initiatives are in trouble on Capitol Hill and President Obama’s approval ratings are slipping, he now faces the prospect of a long, distracting probe into policies of the Bush administration . . . ." Even Democrat strategist James Carville agrees, saying on CNN yesterday, "This is terrible politics for the Obama administration and the Democrats. . . . The country – like – really doesn’t want this." For an administration that claimed it wanted to look ahead and focus on priorities such as health care and the economy, refighting battles over CIA interrogations that only the far left appears interested is at best a distraction.

Remember this phrase; "Bait and Switch." The Obama Administration appears to be presenting a distraction to refocus the public away from the major pending problem - a national train wreck. It's an old con game that a former community organizer would know how to play. Government used to warn us that they wouldn't be able pay for social security and medicare in the future. Yet, they are now running up a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 trillion and expect us to accept it. Make's you wonder why? Not being conspiratorial - is this a nationally orchestrated train wreck or is Congress and the Obama Administration really that stupid?

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Tags: CIA, Eric Holder, Kit Bond, National Debt, Obama administration, special prosecutor, train wreck, US Congress, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!