WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued a statement reacting to President Obama’s State of the Union Address.
CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “The President’s speech would have made Robin Hood proud. There was a lot of talk about taking from ‘the rich,’ and giving to ‘the poor.’ But at least Robin Hood did not use the money he seized to fund a massive and wasteful bureaucracy and run up record deficits and debt at everyone’s expense.
“The speech was not about governing; it was practice for his campaign. The President was full of optimism yet remarkably devoid of solutions to the undeniable problems faced by taxpayers and government or any acknowledgement of the $4.6 trillion that has been added to the national debt since he was sworn into office three years ago. He delivered more than 7,000 words without once mentioning a specific program or initiative that should be eliminated or uttering the words ‘government waste,’ which speaks volumes about his true agenda.
“For example, the President continued to advocate for more clean energy spending in the face of multiple taxpayer-financed failures over the past four months. His casual admission that ‘some technologies don’t pan out’ – likening federal investments to private markets – ignores the important distinction that in the private sector, backers of new businesses and factory expansions venture private money. He also asserted that ‘responsible homeowners shouldn’t have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom,’ which fits perfectly into his core beliefs – that government knows all and can control and predict market forces better than the private sector.
“Overlooking the fiscal train wreck that he has created with his record deficits was a consistent theme throughout the President’s address. He did not propose a single tangible reform to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, which together make up 71 percent of mandatory federal spending. His admission that only half of the savings from the military withdrawals in Afghanistan and Iraq will go toward debt reduction further reveals his administration’s spending addiction. His claim that America is poised to ‘spend’ $1 trillion on tax breaks relies on a backward understanding of how wealth is created in this country. It is ironic that as the rest of the world has begun to emulate America’s economic engine the President is doing all he can to throw it into reverse.
“If the President is in need of suggestions for where to cut, he should start with CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2011, a compendium of 691 recommendations including some his own budget proposals that would save taxpayers $391.9 billion in the first year and $1.8 trillion over five years. Urging Congress to enact each recommendation in Prime Cuts would relieve taxpayers of a significant burden while sending the message that President Obama believes that private industry, not government bureaucracy, is the true driver of wealth creation. But as he did last year, when he refused to adopt the recommendations of his own deficit reduction commission, the President couldn’t even support the most nominal spending cut in his speech,” Schatz concluded.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.