Obama is speaking about undoing many of the spending programs enacted under Bush such as the farm bill and others that he said has outlived their usefullness. While there is still some distance from rhetoric to actions I personally hope he fulfills that pledge.

Staring at the deficits it was reckless to enact the very expensive Farm Bill and the Medicare Presciption Benefits plan. Bush and Congress (both parties) just could not say no to a program we could not afford.

The exploded deficit from the bailout may leave Obama no choice, but it still remains to be seen if the new Congress and Administration will stand up to the lobbying pressure that brought us these wastful programs.

If the Democrats deliver and succeed cutting spending substantially they may remove the ‘tax and spend’ stereotype. If they succeed the Republicans will have a hard time recovering.

Bush may go down like Lyndon Johnson as a president who could not make hard choices on the economy. Like Johnson, Bush sought to spend on both ‘guns and butter’, passing expensive social programs and fighting an expensive war. Like Johnson he will have damaged both the economy and his party.

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