Ready for Battle
Published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(Germany) on 15 April 2011
by Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger (link to
original)
Let the battle for the best way to solve America’s fiscal problem begin! It will be bloody. President Obama’s budgetary speech sent out a message of such fierce determination that it made seeking bipartisan compromises look ridiculous.
In the coming years, the president intends to decrease the budget deficit by $4 trillion: by reducing spending, especially in the defense sector; by raising taxes and by reforming the state welfare programs.
Even though the state health insurance system, in contrast to Medicare, is not excluded from cuts and reforms, his plan does not go nearly as far as the Republicans’ plan. They want a completely new system, because according to them, the current one would lead to insolvency.
Obama presents himself as the savior of the welfare state against the unreasonable demands of the opposition. But at least he acknowledges that the United States is faced with a serious fiscal crisis. Until the elections next year, Americans will have the chance to observe who is serious about cutting the budget deficit, who will take politically risky measures and who is looking for an ideological war.
In the coming years, the president intends to decrease the budget deficit by $4 trillion: by reducing spending, especially in the defense sector; by raising taxes and by reforming the state welfare programs.
Even though the state health insurance system, in contrast to Medicare, is not excluded from cuts and reforms, his plan does not go nearly as far as the Republicans’ plan. They want a completely new system, because according to them, the current one would lead to insolvency.
Obama presents himself as the savior of the welfare state against the unreasonable demands of the opposition. But at least he acknowledges that the United States is faced with a serious fiscal crisis. Until the elections next year, Americans will have the chance to observe who is serious about cutting the budget deficit, who will take politically risky measures and who is looking for an ideological war.