Obama: “We Don’t Have a Spending Problem”

by Greg Campbell
TPNN Contributor

The gloves are coming off for the left as Democrats, led by President Obama, have seemingly crafted an even firmer stance against Republican efforts to cut spending. At a time when America has, for the last four years, continually run a budget deficit in excess of one-trillion dollars, Obama’s unwillingness to address even a fraction of what needs to be cut from government spending signals a complete unwillingness to embrace the realities of an economy that is rapidly becoming more and more unsustainable.

Recently, Speaker of the House John Boehner sat down with Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal and discussed his tense back-and-forth meetings with Obama. Boehner shockingly admitted that in the course of their meetings, Obama actually proclaimed that “We don’t have a spending problem.”

“What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation: “At one point several weeks ago,” Mr. Boehner says, ‘the president said to me, “We don’t have a spending problem.”’…

The president’s insistence that Washington doesn’t have a spending problem, Mr. Boehner says, is predicated on the belief that massive federal deficits stem from what Mr. Obama called ‘a health-care problem.’ Mr. Boehner says that after he recovered from his astonishment—‘They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system’—he replied: ‘Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with ObamaCare. But, Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem.’ He repeated this message so often, he says, that toward the end of the negotiations, the president became irritated and said: ‘I’m getting tired of hearing you say that.’”

It is said that admitting one has a problem is the first step towards recovery for those with an addiction. Clearly, Obama is still in the “denial” phase. However, while Obama doddles on coming to terms with the inarguable conclusion that government spends too much money, Americans are on the hook for a national debt that hovers around the ceiling of $16.4 trillion and running trillion dollar deficits will only continue to make this situation worse.

“Mr. Boehner confirms that at one critical juncture he asked Mr. Obama, after conceding on $800 billion in new taxes, ‘What am I getting?’ and the president replied: ‘You don’t get anything for it. I’m taking that anyway.’”

America has already reached the debt ceiling. Through manipulation of funds, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner has created some headroom that is expected to last until February. Democrats have already solidified their position and many, including President Obama, have claimed that they will not entertain the notion of not raising the debt ceiling. Saying that that he “won’t play that game,” Obama has geared up for what will certainly be a tense exchange with the GOP next month.