DADvocate

Driving to work in the morning, I listen to a variety of radio stations. Primarily, I stay tuned to the comedy oriented Bob and Tom Show which originates from Indianapolis. But, during commercials, I punch the button to other stations until I find something I like.

Yesterday I happened to catch a piece of a report concerning the president's Saturday radio address.

So today, we simply cannot afford to perpetuate a system in Washington where politicians and bureaucrats make decisions behind closed doors, with little accountability for the consequences; where billions are squandered on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a lobbyist or interest group; and where outdated technology and information systems undermine efficiency, threaten our security, and fail to serve an engaged citizenry.

Some how, he failed to mention that the efforts of lobbyists and special interest groups are effective because our politicians sell themselves out for campaign money and votes. Lobbyists and special interests would disappear if our politicians weren't perpetually for sale. (I do believe these groups have a role but that it should be more limited.) I suppose he simply forgot the $5 billion in earmarks in the stimulus bill.

Earlier in the address, Obama stated...

In the year 2000, we had projected budget surpluses in the trillions, and Washington appeared to be on the road to fiscal stability. Eight years later, when I walked in the door, the projected budget deficit for this year alone was $1.3 trillion. And in order to jumpstart our struggling economy, we were forced to make investments that added to that deficit through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Yeah, right. More like bailing out rich campaign contributors.

Later yesterday, Obama ordered his Cabinet to find a way to cut $100 million dollars from the federal budget in the next 90 days. 100 million dollars is 0.01 percent of a trillion. This year we expect the deficit to hit $1.7 trillion. If we do this every 90 days, it will only take 2,500 years to make up a trillion dollars. Given the predicted deficits for the next ten years, we'll need well more than 2,500 years to pay it off at this rate.

Which brings me back to Bob and Tom. If Obama was doing comedy, we'd be laughing our asses off. Imagine him delivering his shtick, "Yeah! It'll only take three or four thousand years to pay off our debt!" (Insert raucous laughter) "One hundred million dollars there, a 100 million dollars here, pretty soon even in Washington it adds up to real money,..." Oh, wait, he really said that.

I can almost imagine Jon Stewart delivering the same lines and the audience eating it up.

One more funny.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday suggested the "Tea Party" movement is an "unhealthy" reaction to the tough economic climate facing the country.

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"The thing that bewilders me is that this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people," Axelrod argued.

Axelrod's bewilderment stems from not having a clue. Plus, did I miss something? I don't recall any tax cuts. Is Axelrod trying to claim that the change in withholding is a tax cut? If so, he needs to read this statement from an email from the accounting department where I work, "Even though the federal tax withheld has changed, this may or MAY NOT change the amount of federal taxes owed for 2009, so this could result in some people being under withheld." I wonder how many people will be hurting come tax time next year.

Plus, his adolescent attempt to discredit the Tea Parties as "unhealthy" additionally demonstrates Axelrod's cluelessness. They couldn’t find a clue in the middle of a clue field during the height of clue hunting season if they smeared their bodies with musk and did the clue-mating dance. Now, I'm off to watch something more serious than what's coming out of the White House, some good reruns of "Gilligan's Island."