OBAMA BY HIS NUMBERS AND VISION

When a friend ended her holiday greeting with "and a prosperous new year--I hope," I was about to respond with an economic opinion. Opinions, however, abound so I thought the President and his numbers can speak for themselves. Here they are:

"I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy - especially now. The cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq, means that Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we can afford to do without. . . . Barack Obama in Canton, Ohio, October 2008.

“As President, I will go through the federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.” Nov. 2, 2008, election eve.

Presidential achievements and positions since taking office:

-- $787 billion stimulus

--$33 billion expansion of the child health program known as S-chip

--$410 billion omnibus appropriations spending bill

--$80 billion auto company bailout.

--$821 billion cap-and-trade bill through the House

--$1 trillion health-care bill.

--$400 billion Christmas eve package of emergency aid to failed government housing corporations. Fannie and Freddie will be on taxpayer support for at least 3 more years.

President Obama: “. . . it does offend our values when executives of big financial firms-firms that are struggling-pay themselves huge bonuses, even as they continue to rely on taxpayer assistance to stay afloat."

--$42 million in bonuses for top 12 executives of failed govt. housing corporations Fannie and Freddie

--budget plan for the next decade projected that revenues about 18% of GDP; spending up at 24% of GDP

--Annual deficits of about 6% of GDP for foreseeable future

In Jan. 2009 deficit for the year $422 billion.

Nov. 1, 2009, deficit for the year $1.42 trillion

Jan 2009, national debt $6.3 trillion

Nov. 1, 2009 national debt $7.5 trillion

Have a happy and prosperous new year.