President Obama made some comments about the budget deficit last night that’s sure to light some fire under some of his critics. Luckily for them, they’ve got at least a year to prepare a rebuttal.
Following the G-20 summit meeting in Toronto, Obama said of the deficit, "Next year, when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step up, because I'm calling their bluff. And we'll see how much of that — how much of the political arguments they're making right now are real, and how much of it was just politics."
That almost sounds like an action movie tagline. Coming next summer to financial institutions across America, Barack Obama is The Debtinator (working title).
Why wait till next year?
When asked why his critics won’t be called to task until 2011, Obama noted that a special deficit committee would report recommendations on how best to handle the deficit, but not until December.
That doesn’t seem to faze most Republicans though, particularly House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, who tweeted the response, “Mr. President, I am not bluffing," following Obama’s remarks last night. Many others are wondering if this commission is just a pretext for recommending tax hikes, which they will oppose. Instead, the Obama administration insists they will curtail government spending.
Passing the buck
As we continue to try and spend our way out of this recession, it gets a little disheartening to read that, despite the relative progress we’ve made so far, we still have a long way to go. Last year, the US annual budget deficit hit $1.4 trillion. This year, it’s expected to climb up to $1.6 trillion, while our total national debt climbs to $13 trillion.
Since no one likes to point the finger on themselves for this, Obama insists he inherited much of this debt crisis from the Bush administration while Republicans are quick to point out that the current president’s $800 billion+ stimulus bill and health care reform aren’t exactly helping to keep the budget down either. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left wondering how we’re supposed to get ourselves out of this mess when the only piece of advice we seem to keep getting is to dig our way out.
What can I do?
If you find yourself swimming up to your eyeballs in bills and are in need of real debt relief, I wouldn’t advise you to follow the government’s example of blaming everyone else for the problem, and instead take some sensible steps to reduce it yourself. Check through all of your finances, map out a plan to pay down your debts, and stick to it. If you would like more detailed advice, including some of the best debt settlement options around, call one of our credit repair specialists today.
