Om CBS's "60 Minutes," Sunday, President Obama responded to Steve Kroft's mention that the national debt has climbed 60 percent on the president's watch by claiming that the defict increase is only 10 percent his fault: "When I came into office, I inherited the biggest deficit in our history. And over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90% of that is as a consequence of two wars that weren't paid for, as a consequence of tax cuts that weren't paid for, a prescription drug plan that was not paid for, and then the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression." Today's must-read is The Wall Stree Journal's takedown of that claim.
Every President "inherits" a government that was built over generations, which he chooses to change, or not to change, to suit his priorities. Mr. Obama chose to see the government he inherited and grow it faster than any President since LBJ.
The pre-eminent political question now is whether to reform the government we have to make it affordable going forward, or to keep growing the government and raise taxes to finance it, if that is even possible.
Every president blames his predecessor for the "mess he inherited," and a certain amount of that is justified, especially in the first two years of an administration. But Obama has abused the privilege.
