Friday, February 18, 2011

Lack of leadership on entitlement reform

Obama's budget proposal is Washington as its most normal - the window dressing of minor cuts to hide the lack of courage to tackle entitlement reform.  The Republicans, so far, are just as bad if not worse by pretending that cutting the small piece of government spending that is non-entitlement discretionary spending will have any real impact on the deficit.  


So, Washington continues along the path toward more entitlement spending, more deficits, and a higher portion of the budget going to pay of the interest payments on the debt.  Eventually, all the government will be able to pay for is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Defense Department, and interest on the debt.  


David Brooks of the New York Times chastises President Obama for failing to confront the government's terrible deficit problem. He points out that Obama endlessly promises to tackle deficit spending but never gets around to it.  He does mention that at least the Republican Senator, Eric Cantor, says that the Republicans will put entitlement reform on the table, which Brooks points out is a leadership move.


What is desperately needed is leadership here, and Obama just ducked.  Will Cantor and other Republicans be able to take the lead and go to the people to get them behind the stopping of ever expanding entitlements?  


I expect that to be the issue of the 2012 election.