Snap

The Democrats are fond of defining domestic "wars." The "War on Women" or the "War on the Poor" are classic examples. They define the GOP an an "enemy" that ruthlessly attacks the target (e.g., women or the poor) and must be fought by electing Democrats. It works quite well—at least if the 2012 election is an indicator.

I would submit that with the release of Barack Obama's budget for 2015, the Democrats are waging a "War on Arithmetic." The president tells us that we must "end the age of austerity," and he's serious when he makes that ridiculous statement. Austerity? Really? This, from a man whose fiscal restraint will lead to a half a trillion deficit this year (rising to $0.85 trillion in 2019. This from a man who has added over $6 trillion to our national debt. This from a man who refuses to even engage in entitlement reform or tax reform. Hah!

Richard Fernandez discusses the War on Arithmetic and uses Detroit as an example:

... the belief that politics can overturn sums runs strong and was expressed two days ago when Detroit pensioners protested the fact that their pensions could not be paid by a city with no money.

Leaders said a plan of adjustment announced last week that would slash some city pensions by 34% was unacceptable and racist. They submitted to the bankruptcy judge their own “People’s Plan for Restructuring Toward a Sustainable Detroit,” a 10-page document showing how Detroit’s crisis could be resolved without hurting city retirees and residents, they said.

Short answer: Big banks and bondholders should accept losses, said Cecily McClellan, 61, a Detroiter and city health department retiree. Applauding and shouting approval as McClellan spoke were about three dozen people gathered at Historic King Solomon Baptist Church.

While one can sympathize with pension holders who are facing destitution and who may not be directly responsible for their predicament, the question remains: how can politics overrule reality? What happens when the bondholders go bankrupt too? Who’s going the bail the bondholders and the bank? Well the government, right? That’s who’s going to bail them out. You see, Genco Abbandando [a bit character in the movie, The Godfather] wasn’t so dumb after all. He only believed the Godfather could cheat death. Detroit thinks you can cheat Arithmetic.

Detroit has not had a Republican administration nearly within living memory. If the city has been brought to its knees it was by some other force than the ... the GOP. The Republicans were too weak, too inept to throw a wrench into the workings of Motor City. Perhaps the primary cause of their downfall was Detroit itself; having disabled its own internal restraints ... it ran amuck and cannibalized everything until something went snap.

I've stated before that Detroit is a harbinger of things to come for the United States. Obama and his supporters continue their War on Arithmetic, using double speak (profligate spending is now characterized as "austerity") as one weapon and the growing numbers of people who depend on federal entitlements as their shock troops.

There will come a time when the War on Arithmetic will be lost, when lies won't have the firepower to stop numbers, when dollars will run out. And when that happens ... snap.