The Cost of the Politics of Promises

Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying, "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been."

Campaign promises, a factor not focused on in the health care debate will play a major role in formulating any policy resulting from debate of such topic. Clearly such rhetoric is central not only to a president's credibility but also to the credibility of his party. Failure to deliver on central topics placed in front of the voters will factor significantly in the re-election of the president and members of Congress and the Senate affiliated with the chief executive. Such truth can be seen in the most recent election where Republicans were swept from the majority they enjoyed in the House and Senate as a result of unpopular presidential policy.

President Barack Obama says he's worried that spending too much money to help revive the economy could undermine a fragile U.S. recovery and throw the economy into a double-dip recession. Obama added that, "it's important to recognize that if the nation keeps adding to deficit spending through tax cuts or more stimulus spending, at some point people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy and that could "lead to a double-dip recession."

According to data released by The Congressional Budget Office, the health care reform proposal now before the Senate will cost 979 billion dollars over the next decade. When Obama campaigned on enacting reform, he pledged to cut premiums, reduce the spiraling growth in medical costs and not add a dollar to the federal deficit.

In 2000 then candidate for President George W. Bush based his presidential campaign on a massive tax cut, 1.2 trillion dollars to be exact. In February of 2000 the Congressional Budget Office announced a 10 year 6 trillion dollar surplus projection assuming that government spending would remain static and previously established tax credits would be allowed to expire. Neither factor came to fruition. In a January 25^th Time CNN Money report, then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted that, "tax cuts could stimulate an already sputtering U.S. economy, however; they must be off-set by cuts in spending." As if experiencing an aura of De Ja Vu one is reminded of the words of former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman. In his book, "The Victory of Politics" Stockman indicates that the budget plan he formulated for the first Reagan Administration depended greatly on tax cuts coupled with significant cuts in spending. Reagan was able to secure only the former part of the equation thus parenting huge budget deficits.

In conclusion, what Obama seems to be bracing the American people for is a recession prolonged by a burgeoning federal deficit part of which includes the no expense barred health care reform he promised in his presidential campaign. Obama's recent actions truly make the words of Kissinger ring true as he leads America into unprecedented debt and prolonged pain resulting from his extreme hubris and reckless policies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091122/pl_politico/29798

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34017224/ns/politics-health_care_reform/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091118/ap_on_re_as/as_obama_economy