Kicking responsibility down the road

For someone who campaigned on 'change,' The Chosen One has fallen right in with the same old playbooks. Consider this:

President Barack Obama's ambitious goal of cutting the federal deficit in half relies on a perfect - some might say improbable - convergence of factors: a recovered economy, a tax boost for the rich and success in easing foreign entanglements.'

In calling for a deficit of about $530 billion in four years, Obama has established a marker by which to measure his first-term performance as president. The dollar figure could be his albatross or his badge of success.

The really improbably factor is the idea Uncle Sam will stop spending money on stupid bailout plans. I've lost count of how many Presidents have developed a 'long-term' goal of cutting the deficit in half. The target date for that achievement always seems to be beyond the end of their term, though... funny how the day of reckoning never comes on their watch, isn't it?

To think that thirty years ago the Democrats were horrified at the "Reagan deficits," and now we have a Democratic-controlled Federal Government digging that deficit and debt deeper at a faster rate than has ever been seen. But it'll get better. You'll see. Any day now. Wait for it...