Beware of Obama Bearing Gifts to Greeks

Beware of Obama Bearing Gifts to Greeks
Lurita Doan
Monday, May 03, 2010

President Obama is focusing his attention on Greece and its financial collapse. Oh no! American taxpayers should brace themselves for another raid on the U.S. Treasury that will ultimately result in even higher taxes as our own debt grows. President Obama is ignoring the many parallels between U.S. and Greece--both are countries with growing budgetary deficits and expanding entitlement programs. The U.S. could learn from the Greek debt crisis, but the President and Democrats in congress, bizarrely, seem determined to put the U.S. on the same path that Greece has followed off the cliff.

The financial problems Greece now faces are dire and their social welfare problems are just as acute. Recent reports cite current government debt at approximately 115% of GDP. And, Greece needs about $160 billion in emergency aid within the next few days in order to prevent a total collapse. Since investors are no longer willing to provide funding to Greece by purchasing bonds, Greece has been forced to come hat-in-hand to the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an immediate bailout.

How much will Germany and the other financially solvent European states pony up and how much will come from the IMF? That's the question that Germany’s Merkel and President Obama are discussing. You can be sure that Merkel is anxious for the IMF, and not Germany, to be on the hook for most of the cash required.

Americans should be alarmed, for 17% of all IMF funding comes from the US taxpayer, which means that America, at least indirectly, is going to be one of the largest sources of cash to prop up and bailout Greece.

Greece can no longer fund its expansive government entitlements and has done nothing to improve the competitiveness of Greek industry. Consider: huge and expanding government, powerful and intractable labor unions, womb-to-tomb entitlements and regulatory Kafkaesque restrictions on small business growth – sounds a bit like what's happening in the U.S? These kinds of flawed policies have brought Greece to its knees. Now, we have President Obama trying to implement a similar set of policies in the U.S.

President Obama will likely cut a deal to help bailout Greece with US money and quickly, while Americans are focused on financial reform and immigration issues in Arizona. The last thing President Obama wants right now is for average, over-taxed and over-regulated Americans to understand exactly how Greece got into the mess, for, Obama has placed the U.S. on the same path.

Team Obama, in only 18 months, has ballooned the deficit with all sorts of dodgy pork projects to favored constituents, has supported historic expansions of entitlements and huge growth in government, all while disguising the true costs. Team Obama’s policies have squandered American wealth, eroded competitiveness while racking up a deficit we may be unable to repay.

The Obama Administration is working hard to convince Americans that it is right and proper for the government to take money or property away from some Americans and redistribute it to others. At the core of President Obama’s policies is the notion that there is no limit to what the government can spend. We can, he suggests, have it all without any consequences. Obama's policies mirror the bloated and irresponsible financial and social policies that have led Greece to ruin.

Expect some rising resentment when hard working Americans figure out that taxpayer funds are supporting Greek retirees, who retire between 50 and 60. President Obama is considering supporting this folly from Greek Unions, just at a time when the U.S. Social Security Administration deficits force the U.S. to consider raising the U.S. retirement age. Resentment will only grow when Americans discover that some Greek workers retire as early as 50 because they were employed in a dangerous occupation like hairdressing which the Greek government has designated as “hazardous” (because of the proximity of toxic chemicals in beauty salons).

Other Americans will question the wisdom of President Obama lecturing Greece on budgetary issues when the U.S. federal government is running almost a $13 trillion dollar deficit and when total U.S. indebtedness including the federal, state, local and personal debt of American citizens is over $55 trillion dollars.

None of the concerns of American taxpayers seem sufficient to stop Obama from taking this country down the same, failed, rocky road as Greece. So Beware America: whether you approve or not, Obama is bearing gifts to the Greeks.