Politicians speak English. Sort of. They use the same words we do, but give different meanings to them. For example, increasing spending by less than the amount forecast is called a budget cut. You and I, seeing that the amount of spending has increased, would call it a spending increase. How silly of us not to recognize that the increase is really a decrease and a bold act of political leadership.
In the 2012 budget released this week, President Obama proposes to freeze federal non-defense discretionary spending for five years. He claims that this will “save” $400 billion in spending. But, remember, this is Washington Politico-Speak. Actual spending will not be reduced in spite of the claims. It will remain at unprecedented levels. This category of the budget has increased by almost 50 percent in the two years the Obama Administration has been in power.
In the 2012 budget released this week, President Obama proposes to freeze federal non-defense discretionary spending for five years. He claims that this will “save” $400 billion in spending. But, remember, this is Washington Politico-Speak. Actual spending will not be reduced in spite of the claims. It will remain at unprecedented levels. This category of the budget has increased by almost 50 percent in the two years the Obama Administration has been in power.
This is like a man who begins to eat two desserts after every meal. His doctor tells him that the weight gain is unhealthy and that drastic action is needed to avoid catastrophic problems. The man then announces that he will freeze his eating habits at two desserts per meal and not increase to three deserts. He then calls this a bold diet and claims that the extra weight that the third dessert would have caused is really a weight loss.
Only in Washington . . .
The media is now consumed with the looming fights over entitlement spending. Bringing entitlements under control is essential to long term financial health for our country. The debates on how to do this will take time as a national consensus emerges. But, significant actions to reduce the deficit and resulting debt can be taken in the meantime.
Almost all of the record deficits of the last two years has come from the huge increase in discretionary spending, not entitlements. For more than two centuries we grew and prospered without our government eating two desserts after every meal. The current level of spending is an aberration, not the norm.
Huge savings, simply by returning to the levels of discretionary spending that existed just two years ago, are available if we use American English to address the problem, and not Washington English.
