Obama's Strategy: Reward Failure

After three weeks, most Americans still do not understand all of the behind-closed-door deals that had to be cut on the $965 Billion dollar bailout of Greece. It’s yet another complicated deal, with little transparency to let non-governmental folks understand the specifics.

But, I do understand the power of a dream that can inspire a new generation. And I know that Obama just killed that dream.

Obama’s decision to expand bailouts to include Greece coincided with a Senate hearing on another decision Obama made to cut funding for a government space travel program, killing the dream of a permanent station on the Moon or a landing on Mars.

As an unintended, but cruel, joke, Obama’s decision to retreat from space exploration has been pushed as an example of the President’s fiscal discipline. No doubt, Obama was hoping that such cuts would mask the fact that he has endorsed the greatest deficits spending in the history of the United States.

But, as with many of Obama’s posturings, fiscal discipline was a canard. Obama’s decision to cut NASA’s space travel wasn’t fiscally disciplined, it was just ill-informed.

Let’s take another look at these two decisions.

First, The proposed bailout of Greece and EU involves a $325 billion dollar loan/bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since the United States is 17% of the IMF, the pro-rata share of US funding via IMF for the bailout of Greece is approximately $55 billion dollars.

Given the open ended nature of the American commitment (i.e. Fed Reserve entered into an unlimited dollar swap agreement) along with the near certain fact that other EU countries may also require shoring up (e.g. Spain).

Few have any illusions that American taxpayers are going to, ultimately contribute a lot more than the $55 billion that has been reported.

By now, Americans should be familiar with the Obama Administration’s strategy of underestimating costs to garner support for dodgy programs. My guess is that the EU bailout will ultimately cost American taxpayers $100 billion or more when all is said and done.

To put the $55 billion (and growing) Greek bailout in perspective, the entire NASA FY2010 budget request to Congress was approximately $19 billion. A space shuttle launch costs approximately $450 million per mission. And, with the $9 billion spent so far, NASA needed approximately $80 billion over the next three years in order to have four astronauts travel to the moon and spend the week on the moon. But, NASA has been told by the Obama Administration that travel to the moon is too expensive.

Instead, Obama will give Greece a down payment of $55 billion, and a promise for more, to support the retirement of Greek civil servants and other Greek Union workers, many of whom retired between 50 and 60 years of age, from dangerous professions such as beauty salon hairdresser. Wow! Obama really knows how to inspire the American people!

Of course, since the U.S. doesn’t actually have the funds, Obama’s largesse to Greece is provided at the cost of increasing the U.S. deficit and borrowing the funds, most likely, from China. Why, oh why, does Obama keep shoveling money to those that have made the worst fiscal decisions to live beyond their means? Does he not understand that the funds required to bailout such failures must be appropriated from other, more responsible, citizens or be robbed from programs that could actually contribute to our economic, scientific, and innovative tradition of excellence?

The cost, in terms of funding, prestige and future potential of the Obama Administration’s many failed policies pale in comparison to this recent idiocy and cement Obama’s reputation for having an inability to prioritize and put the needs of the American people first.

Supporting overpaid Greek union retirees at the expense of inspiring a new generation of Americans to study math and science is just the latest of Obama’s colossally, short-sighted failures.

The President should seek to inspire a new generation to be setting up a permanent space colony on the moon in 2020. We are Americans. We have big dreams. We do great things, like putting men, and women, on the moon.

Leaders need to lead, not docilely follow and accede to the the demands of disgruntled union workers. Too bad for us that Obama has repeatedly shown he lacks the right stuff.