Video: How much can an 800-pound gorilla spend?
posted at 11:36 am on January 24, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
When President Obama speaks to Congress in tomorrow night’s State of the Union speech, he’s widely expected to use the opportunity to move to the center, reaching out to Republicans especially in the House who want to cut spending. At the same time, Obama will try to fire up his fellow Democrats in Congress and some Republicans in the middle for a new round of “investment” spending, which will certainly resonate with lawmakers looking to be seen as doing something on jobs and infrastructure — despite the failure of the supposedly jobs-and-infrastructure Porkulus to kick off an economic expansion. The 800-pound gorilla in the Beltway is the spiraling national debt, as Citizens United reminds us with this one-minute pre-SOTU spot:
SOTU speeches are almost always a laundry list of new spending for Presidents, regardless of their party affiliation. That’s been true of Obama, certainly, but was equally true of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, too. It’s one of the reasons why this particular political tradition has grown so tedious. Usually, Congress obliges by spending even more than Presidents request, and for the same reason: self-aggrandizement. That’s the real 800-pound gorilla in the halls of Congress.
The only antidote is public pressure to increase to make sure our newly elected Representatives and Senators know that voters aren’t buying it any longer, and that just as we saw in November, the electorate occasionally outweighs that 800-pound gorilla.
Blowback
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Ryan should start with the basics. Government spends money, it does not invest. Even very necessary government functions constitute spending and not investment. Private businesses and individuals who buy equipment or stocks or the like in the expectation of earning more money are investing. Government doesn’t do that. It spends.
forest on January 24, 2011 at 11:42 AM
“Gorillas are relatively smart, they can be taught to run the printing press that fires out $100 bills. Problem solved.”
-douchebag Schumer
Bishop on January 24, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Just a head’s up – putting a Gorilla in the same scene as Obama, by definition, is racist, thus making any point moot.
It may even lead to more shootings.
Hoodlumman on January 24, 2011 at 11:46 AM
That’s the key. The President is FAR less the problem than the Congress. You always see the chart of deficit spending by president. The REAL key is the deficit spending by Party control of the houses. Of course, when the GOP WAS in charge, they did better for a few years, then started spending like Democrats again.
michaelo on January 24, 2011 at 11:46 AM
The same ol’ video comment of mine.
Shy Guy on January 24, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Spend at your own risk. The last election wasn’t a dream, it actually happened and can happen again.
fogw on January 24, 2011 at 11:47 AM
800 lb. gorilla…is this another Oprah thread?
Extrafishy on January 24, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Can you say… 1600 lbs.?
Shy Guy on January 24, 2011 at 11:51 AM
We see the gorilla. What about the RINO’s….?
NeoKong on January 24, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Well now, first you have to be able to see the gorilla… what Obama ‘wants’ is a distraction.
What Congress passes is the problem.
Do not be deceived by the man at the podium, or you will miss the gorilla.
ajacksonian on January 24, 2011 at 11:56 AM
My question-how much of the millions/billions of Fed gas tax is actually spent on roads?
marinetbryant on January 24, 2011 at 11:58 AM
$14 Trillion. Pretty soon we’ll be talking about real money.
Yakko77 on January 24, 2011 at 12:03 PM
A gorilla in-scene with Obama? Even referenced in the same ‘commercial’?
Racist, of course.
Midas on January 24, 2011 at 12:18 PM
Beat me to it. ;)
Midas on January 24, 2011 at 12:19 PM
This is insulting to gorillas.
Dark-Star on January 24, 2011 at 12:31 PM
That headline is not being very nice to Michelle…..
search4truth on January 24, 2011 at 1:30 PM
Widely expected by whom? And will they give up their cushy commenting jobs when they’re found to be wrong. Again.
GarandFan on January 24, 2011 at 1:33 PM
New, fiscally responsible President will kick off his belt-tightening with a round of new spending proposals.
And it’ll be called a move towards the center and good governance.
hawksruleva on January 24, 2011 at 1:57 PM
Let me re-post my response from the Cantor thread bcs it is just as relevant here:
I have a small story for you about wasteful govt spending:
small ND rural fire depts compete for grant $$ to purchase fire fighting equipment.
An analog radio costs ~$300 each & is perfectly fine for our needs out here.
Problem is, the fed grant $$ available is only for a DIGITAL radio which has a cost of $1500 each.
The grant guy, some fed lackey, was here begging for the rural FD’s at the annual FD meeting to FIND ways to spend $$, your fed tax dollars, on equipment they didn’t really need.
And look at the fed agencies. They receive $$ each yr & it is often a spend it or lose it thing.
So they are buying stuff they don’t need, like new office furniture etc.
Federal Title I public school moneys also work like this.
I was a Title I teacher for 2 yrs in a public school here in ND.
The school received over $125,000/yr. I had 9 students the whole year in the program.
I was instructed to spend ALL of the $$ on WHATEVER, whether we needed it or not, bcs the $$ would be sent back & it would be ‘lost’.
So I was paid to attend a conference each year, staying for a whole week in a nice hotel, bought computers I did not need, etc.
Keep in mind this was a ‘targeted assistance’ Title I program so only the students in the title program were allowed to use the resources purchased with this $$.
Regular students could not use any of the equiment.
You get rid of crap like this all over the country, & work on people’s attitudes about spending this $$ by letting them know where it comes from & teach them to be more fiscally responsible, & we can certainly cut waste.
You should all be outraged by this kind of wasteful spending.
Unfortunately, many rail about it, but are the 1st in line for some grant $$ to buy something for their local community, whether it is needed or not.
Badger40 on January 24, 2011 at 8:45 AM
Badger40 on January 24, 2011 at 2:18 PM
And regarding the part about being a Title I teacher in my post above:
I was paid to be a FULL TIME teacher in a High School & only served 9 kids. And it was either voluntary through the student or the parent.
Kids didn’t want to be in there once they found out it wasn’t like the resource room (special ed) where they got the answers to things.
I made them work. So I got less kids who wanted to come in.
What a complete waste of money.
Badger40 on January 24, 2011 at 2:21 PM
You’ve GOT to be kidding me! Citizens United is stupid enough to use an ape to criticize Obama. And they are playing this BEFORE the state of the union??? I do hope by “spot” you dont mean that its going to be on TV!??
What a BRILLIANT way to make sure absolutely NO ONE hears your message, because the entire left is going to go APE-SH*T crazy charging RACISM! RACISM! RACISM!
Why not an 800 pound Donkey? No opportunity for charges of racism, and more appropriate to boot.
I cant believe anyone could be that dumb.
American Elephant on January 24, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Nobody seems to understand the magnitude of the problem. FY2011′s budget is $3.7 trillion. FY2011′s projected income is $2.5 trillion. If we were to amortize the debt over 30 years at today’s rates (1.3%), it would take $260 million per year. If we were serious about getting out of debt (not just balancing the budget, but actually paying back $14 trillion), we would only spend revenue minus the debt payment or less than $2 trillion.
That means we must cut at least $1.7 trillion from the budget for this year and every year for the next 30 years. And never overspend once in that time.
And every time we push this off again, it gets harder and harder to do.
Stegall Tx on January 24, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Sorry, the amortized debt is $560 million per year for 30 years.
Stegall Tx on January 24, 2011 at 4:20 PM
It doesn’t seem real to them. And it seems even less real to the American public. They cannot put 2 & 2 together.
BTW- I am a fan of Red Steagall from TX. You?
Badger40 on January 24, 2011 at 4:25 PM
Haven’t heard his music for years, but I remember some. I’ve taken the name of the town closest to the farm.
Stegall Tx on January 24, 2011 at 5:01 PM
He’s got a ‘cowboy music’ hour on the radio with interviews of old timers & such.
Very interesting.
Badger40 on January 24, 2011 at 5:34 PM
RAAAACIST!!!1!1
RedNewEnglander on January 24, 2011 at 6:07 PM