Runaway Government Spending

A refrain we have grown used to hearing: Under Obama, federal spending has gotten out of control. Obama himself, because of his spending, has added trillions to the national debt in just 2 years.

Or, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI) put it in his "rebuttal" to the State of the Union speech:

Unfortunately, instead of restoring the fundamentals of economic growth, he engaged in a stimulus spending spree that not only failed to deliver on its promise to create jobs, but also plunged us even deeper into debt.

The facts are clear: Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25% for domestic government agencies - an 84% increase when you include the failed stimulus. 

Let's ignore the "instead of restoring the fundamentals of economic growth" part, and not point out that the economy has, in fact, grown throughout all of 2010 and even the latter part of 2009 --by the measures Mr Ryan and his Republican cohort value the most, stock prices and corporate profits.

Instead, note how carefully he phrases this: "domestic government agencies." Whazzat mean, exactly? "Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25% for domestic government agencies."

What's a "domestic government agency?"

It depends on what you're talking about. For purposes of various federal privacy rules, "agency" is defined quite broadly. On the other hand, in the government's organization chart, "Agency" is shown as distinct from "Department."

Why is this important? Because we have grown used to weasel words from people who have an ax to grind and want to criticize the government. The truth is, we simply don't know what Ryan was talking about. We don't know if he means that $400 billion was suddenly increased to $500 billion (25%) or $746 billion (84%) counting "the failed stimulus." On the other hand, he could mean that $4 billion was increased to $5 billion (or to $7.46 billion).

But we have a suspicion, don't we? The use of percentages, and the precise and evidently narrow definition his choice of words involves, strongly suggests that (1) actual dollars, instead of percentages, would be a lot less impressive, and (2) using dollars would not have helped the gloss Ryan's rhetoric needs.

In other words, I'm not sure: this may be FOP. It almost certainly isn't Dapper Dan.

Second Amendment Solutions

News Flash: The House of Representatives will not take up the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" on Wednesday as originally scheduled. John Boehner? Squeamish? Perish, or rather Kill, the Thought!

In other news, the "SarahPAC" facebook page has, or perhaps has not, removed the little targets, with rifle-sight crosshairs, on its US map showing twenty congressmen, including Res. Giffords, who need to be "targeted." 

And earlier, KGUN (Really; in America you don't have to resort to fiction for this sort of thing) in Tucson reported that the sheriff of Pima county sort of lit into the radical commentariat who polarize political debate as a way of earning money. "vitriol," he called it. "It may be free speech," he said, "but it's not without consequences."

Meanwhile, a half-dozen people are dead, victims of our political culture, and of a permissive gun mindset that both Rep Giffords and Judge Roll supported in their official capacities.

Hubert Humphrey

I saw a retrospective on the "Happy Warrior" tonight. It brought back a very tumultuous time in our history, particularly when it turned to the events of the (Lyndon) Johnson Administration. Humphrey had been the liberal hero for his entire career, and Johnson's point man in the Senate, without whom the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would never have been passed.

But Johnson's overweening ego, and Humphrey's loyalty to a president whose policy on Viet Nam he could not support but, as Vice-President, could not publicly oppose, doomed Humphrey's candidacy in 1968. I was left, after viewing the carnage of that Chicago summer, and then the fact of Nixon's win, with the thought that Humphrey had adhered to his principles right up to the point where his ambition to be president became powerful enough to silence him, and so in the end, ironically, cost him the presidency.

I switched off the set. "Poor Hubert," I thought. And then, "Poor us."