Barack Obama: Robin Hood or Robbin’ Hood?

The Obama Administration has had such a difficult time convincing Americans that fixing the economy involves borrowing money to spend your way out of debt, or that his customized solutions (read: spending proposals) for every societal problem will create jobs, they now have to resort to an organized propaganda campaign that would make Joseph Goebbels green with envy. When Barack Obama talks about "the deficit", he isn't just talking about the lack of trust he continues to impart, but also referring to the US budget deficit, which is currently $1.5 trillion. But, the deficit is just a number representing the yearly budget gap between what you'll take in versus what you'll spend. I'm more concerned about the national debt; the accumulation of all unfunded expenditures and entitlements, past, present and future, which is now an eye-popping $50 trillion. Understanding the difference between deficit vs. debt helps to understand how Barack Obama can keep a straight face while increasing our already out-of-control national debt and simultaneously boasting that he's shrinking the deficit. When Obama talks about the "unemployment rate" he's referring specifically to those filing claims for unemployment benefits and actively seeking work. It excludes those who have simply stopped looking because there are no jobs. It's also just a number, which doesn't account for swings due to intangible factors such as the holidays, the weather and increased corporate productivity and cost-cutting. In January, the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent and the Obama Administration cheered. But, the economy also shed an additional 20,000 jobs. While liberal economists and administration bean-counters believe the drop in the unemployment rate signals the bottom, we're still bleeding jobs. Many people have exhausted their benefits, 20,000 more can't find work and others have simply dropped out of the work force and stopped looking. When Obama talks about the economy "growing", what he is referring to is an increase in US Gross Domestic Product, the market value of all goods and services produced within the United States, which includes government outlays. When he talks of recession, he's referring to two or more consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GDP. Around the turn of last century, government spending constituted roughly 10% of GDP. Although government spending --as a percentage of GDP-- has risen steadily since World War II, the spike under Obama's watch is evident. Based on what he has spent in just his first year, government spending will edge ever closer to 50% of total GDP in 2010, surpassed only by the spike during World War II.

Obama's math simply doesn't add up. Since government takes money from you and I instead of earning it, as government spending increases, creating neither wealth nor jobs, the percentage of GDP that can be attributed to the private sector in the form of goods and services, which does create both wealth and jobs, decreases. The result is a recipe for disaster. When I was young, like many American children, I grew up hearing tales of Robin Hood. He and his band of Merry Men hid out in Sherwood Forest and stuck it to the evil Sheriff of Nottingham every chance they got, making ordinary people's lives better by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. How noble. It wasn't until much later when I became aware of the dangers of the modern secular-progressive movement that I realized that the sheriff was a duly-elected official, merely carrying out his responsibility as tax Collector and that Robin Hood was a socialist. Like Hugo Chavez. Barack Obama is the modern-day Robin Hood. Or, is it Robbin' Hood? Portrayed in the media as magical and good, the reality is that he is a thug and a thief, selfishly robbing from future generations to cover the failures of government and attacking anyone who objects. An incorrigible Narcissist with an insatiable appetite for other people's money and an unshakable belief that by spreading it around a bit, the prosperity that brought it into existence may magically rub off on other people. Stripped of political rhetoric and placed in proper context, the real impact of Obama's policies on jobs and economic prosperity are evident. The jobs have disappeared and won't return until some certainty and sanity do. Even if the spending stopped immediately, Obama and Democrats have already saddled future generations, who had nothing to do with this mess, with insurmountable debt. Yet the spending continues unabated with no signs of stopping. If government spending as a percentage of real GDP rises much further, the American economy is finished. I've said that's their plan all along. I challenge you to prove me wrong.