President Obama's Grecian Formula

Guest Blogger Jon Thomas warns against the real dangers of Obamanomics.

It is no secret that Democrats, liberals, progressives, or whatever they are calling themselves now, have long looked to Europe as the ideal to which America should aspire. They are so sophisticated and refined, we are told. Throughout the Bush administration, the smartest people in the room were wringing their collective hands lamenting that we should seek Europe's enlightened nod of approval. But as with so much of what the Illuminati claims to know, it requires the suspension of reality.

One of the primary reasons Europe is so endearing to libs is that European countries, to varying degrees, are all welfare states with cradle to grave entitlement programs that are so coveted by the left. During the health care debate, we were browbeat by the complaint that the United States "is the only industrialized nation" that doesn't guarantee the right to health care. You might also recall most European nation's superior ranking from the World Health Organization. What gets left out of this statistic is the incongruent nature of the source data. But I digress.

They pound the drumbeat that America has everything wrong with her and needs to be more like Europe. And we seem to be moving rapidly in that direction. We are becoming a burgeoning welfare state. Our annual deficits have surpassed 10% of GDP and our debt (excluding unfunded liabilities: read-Social Security, Medicare, etc.) is approaching 100% of GDP. (Encumbered with entitlement liabilities, Greece' deficit is about 13.6% of GDP and debt is 115% of GDP.) Add the cherry of Obamacare to the top of the statist pie and you have Obama's Grecian Formula.

The word unsustainable has been overused and misused by the greenies to describe the dubious notion that the environment is too feeble to handle humans. A more appropriate and meaningful use of the word would be to describe our current debt trajectory that, if continued, will result in economic collapse, and with far more damage and suffering to humans as well as the environment. The difference is that unlike Greece, there will be no one to bail us out. America will be one of the last if not the last domino to fall and make no mistake chaos and tyranny will fill the vacuum.

So the largest economies in the world appear to be at a crossroad. Realizing the unsustainable nature of unbridled entitlements, the smart ones are moving in a more fiscally sane direction. The European Parliament continues its rightward shift, England just elected a conservative Prime Minister, and Germany- the largest stakeholder in the Greek bailout- sees the writing on the wall and gobbled up gold, sending it up sharply last week.

Suddenly Europe's bloom is off the rose. Instead of looking across the pond for guidance the left claims we must "spend our way out of recession." To borrow an often used Obama analogy, the Democrats have the keys and are driving the car toward the debt cliff and instead of trying to stop the car, they're flooring it. Makes you wonder if driving the economy off the cliff is their intent.

By: Jon Thomas