Government spending past and future

Last night's presidential debate underscored for me just how critical this year's election is to the future of our country.  The hot-button topic present throughout the debate was government spending, and rightly so.  There is no denying that we find ourselves in an unprecedented financial mess.  So when McCain says things like "spending freeze," I'm sure it resonates with many Americans.  Yes, on the surface, many of us think to ourselves that government spending is out of control and it must stop.  However, this mess is not due to government spending, but rather the GOVERNMENT SPENDING MONEY ON THE WRONG THINGS.  Let's remember how we got here.  We did not wind up in this position because government was wisely spending our dollars on investing in the future of our country.  It's not like over the past 8 years our government has been putting money toward education or healthcare or alternative energy.  We all know where the money went; in large part to the war in Iraq. 

And that's why we need to recognize that an across the board "spending freeze" will just keep us stuck in this horrible mess.  Now, more than ever, we need a leader who can temper response to the severity of the financial crisis, and look forward with a sharp eye for investments that are critical to the future of our country.

Let's look how the issue of spending plays itself out under each of the candidate's positions on spending.  

It's pretty clear that John McCain's energy plan under a spending freeze boils down to just one thing: drilling.  The technology is already there, so no government investment is required.   What you get is more of the same.  We will continue to be dependent on oil, and no matter how much we drill, we will still need to import oil.  McCain made it very clear last night, that he has no problem with us being dependent on oil, he just wants us to become independent from having to buy it from the Middle East and Venezuela.  I take that to mean that he is not concerned with the environmental issues surrounding oil, at least not in a way that would influence his policy regarding energy.  His plan is clear.  We stay status quo.  And we will be no better off on this issue four years from now if John McCain is elected.

Barack Obama does not plan to scrap his energy plan for the future.  He continues to believe that to reach our goal of energy independence, we must invest.  We will drill, but we cannot just abandon our focus on alternative sources of energy.  The investment in hybrid vehicles cannot be sacrificed.  The transportation sector uses 30% of our energy, over 90% of it comes from petroleum products.  If we don't change those numbers in a big way, our dependence on oil does not improve.  And as for where that electricity comes from to feed the hybrid vehicles, under the McCain plan, it would mostly come from nuclear energy.  However, under the spending freeze, I guess he won't invest in nuclear at this time, which in my opinion is not necessarily a bad thing.  Obama prioritizes wind, solar, hydroelectric, and other clean non-nuclear forms of energy to produce electricity.

So, the "spending freeze" may sound like a welcome relief to most Americans right now.  It could be perceived as much needed tough talk for tough times.  But these tough times didn't result from government spending on energy, education, and other forward thinking programs.  It is exactly because we were NOT investing in the future that we ended up where we are.  And that's where the "hatchet" will keep us.  It seems to me the more reasonable approach is to cut spending where it isn't working and fine-tune what little spending we can afford, and target it toward our future.