Obama admits...'WE'RE OUT OF MONEY'

[festus]

'WE'RE OUT OF MONEY'
Sat May 23 2009 10:32:18 ET
DRUDGE REPORT: OBAMA SAYS 'WE'RE OUT OF MONEY' 2009®
In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: "We are out of money."

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything...

SCULLY: When you see GM though as “Government Motors,” you're reaction?

OBAMA: Well, you know – look we are trying to help an auto industry that is going through a combination of bad decision making over many years and an unprecedented crisis or at least a crisis we haven't seen since the 1930's. And you know the economy is going to bounce back and we want to get out of the business of helping auto companies as quickly as we can. I have got more enough to do without that. In the same way that I want to get out of the business of helping banks, but we have to make some strategic decisions about strategic industries...

SCULLY: States like California in desperate financial situation, will you be forced to bail out the states?

OBAMA: No. I think that what you're seeing in states is that anytime you got a severe recession like this, as I said before, their demands on services are higher. So, they are sending more money out. At the same time, they're bringing less tax revenue in. And that's a painful adjustment, what we're going end up seeing is lot of states making very difficult choices there...

SCULLY: William Howard Taft served on the court after his presidency, would you have any interest in being on the Supreme Court?

OBAMA: You know, I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation...

Developing...

[HK4U]

And it will never get any better unless we elect a President such as Ron Paul or someone else that understands the real cause and effect and is willing to do something about it beginning with abolishing the Federal Reserve. We either deal with the root causes and quit treating the symptoms or things will only get worse.

[fuhr52]

I've had it with hope and change. Obama has spent more than all the presidents together sense Washington and he's only been their for a little over 100 days.

[gogriz91]

He'll just tell Bernanke to print more, it worked for the porkulus.

[Durendal]

OBAMA: You know, I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation...

That smug bastard.

[Tea For One]

That smug bastard.

[Scarecrow]

obama should be admitting more things besides that we are out of money... such as he is not qualified to be president.

[Bohemian]

[NRA UR2]

Bohemian is right on. And why can't somebody find his birth certificate? Maybe its hidden in the elephant grass.

[1911 Headbanger]

We're not out of money; They're printing it as fast as they can.