But even worse than the dollar amount–a total of almost $4 trillion, starting a year from now–is that Obama will not freeze or cut spending on the parts of our budget that most urgently need to be cut. While Obama pats himself on the back for “saving $20 million by stopping the refurbishment of a Department of Energy science center that the Department of Energy does not want to refurbish”–.0005% of the budget–he will not touch Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which will cost $1.35 trillion this year. This is particularly egregious since these programs have catastrophic unfunded liabilities some estimate at upwards of $100 trillion.

President Obama wants to pretend that he can meaningfully freeze or cut spending without rolling back the welfare state; he can’t. It’s time for all of us to face the reality that celebrated wealth-transfer programs such as Social Security are robbing the present and future of productive, responsible Americans.

ARC