Obama: Squandering His Children’s Inheritance

Pleasure is the ultimate goal in life. This was the central premise of the ancient Greek philosophy called hedonism.  It’s also the mindset of our elected officials in Washington. They have chosen to “eat, drink, and be merry” at the expense of future generations, spending wildly and carelessly, indulging themselves at the expense of their heirs.

Sequestration has come and gone, but not without the feigned hysteria, robust outrage, and disingenuous condemnation from our federal government.  One key point, however, was left out of the twisted sequestration narrative: these cuts are nothing more than an infinitesimal drop in an oversized bucket.  Future generations are still left with a hefty $16.5 trillion dollar bill.

President Obama spent weeks telling us that the sky would fall if we cut just over 1% of spending allocated for 2013.  He conveniently left out the fact that spending is still increasing this year compared to last (spending will be up by $15 billion in 2013).

So, essentially, sequestration was a reduction in the increase of spending, meaning no real, genuine spending cuts have even taken place.

And the long-term trajectory of spending with the sequestration cuts is still a very dour picture indeed.  The Heritage Foundation reports, “Federal spending is projected to grow from $3.6 trillion in 2013 to more than $6 trillion by 2023, a 69 percent increase without sequestration. Even with sequestration, federal spending would still grow by 67 percent. Sequestration barely even slows the growth in spending, let alone cuts any spending out of the overall budget.”

All of this builds to one conclusion – President Obama and the Democrats, like the ancient Greek hedonists, do not care about future generations.  They are not willing to undergo even the slightest pain now for the sake of prosperity tomorrow.

If the left were truly interested in preserving this great country for their children, they would be looking to cut waste from their bloated budget, which has previously allotted for $24,000 to build a toilet on wheels in Texas, $141,450 to study swine manure, and $325,000 to build robotic squirrels.  No joke.  These really are government-funded, taxpayer dollar initiatives.

It is beyond inexcusable that our politicians in Washington continually act as profligate spenders with bottomless pocket books as our $16.5 trillion dollar debt continues to climb endlessly upward.

Rest assured, the day of reckoning is fast approaching.  It is not now, in the post-sequestration world, and it’s not later this month, when we’re expected to hit the debt ceiling.  But there is no doubt it is coming.

In Oscar Wilde’s infamous novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the hedonistic Lord Hentry Wotton remarked, “Life is a moment.  There is not hereafter.”  Unlike in this fictional portrayal where greed and self-indulgence had no consequence, there will be real life consequences to our actions.

It’s time President Obama realize there is a hereafter, and his children will be left to bare the destructive, injurious, unimaginable hereafter he has created.