Federal spending today is 40 percent higher today than it was six short years ago when a (gasp!) Republican was in the White House.

Our national debt has increased by 60 percent since Barack Obama became president.

The proposed $85 billion cut in federal spending mandated by the sequester that took effect Friday is only 2.3 percent of the federal budget.

(The figure $85,000,000,000 looks pretty scary when you actually look at the numbers.)

That the Senate is supposed to propose a federal budget every year but, under Democratic control, has not done so in more than three years.

Are we better off today than we were five years ago?

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About 15 years ago, I saw a movie titled, “The American President.” Michael Douglas played the title role and he did his usual fine job. At the end of the movie, he gave a speech in which he said, “America isn’t easy. … We have serious problems to solve and we need serious people to solve them.”

By the way: How’s that $800 billion stimulus from 2009 working out?

Terence McManus

New Sharon


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