Obama's Weekly Address, Apil 5, 2009-SES Assignment March 05 2011

8/7/2019 Obama's Weekly Address, Apil 5, 2009-SES Assignment March 05 2011

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SYNOPSIS:Obamas Weekly

AddressApril 25,2009By: Imran Ahmad Sajid

Obama speaks about the economic crisis in the United States and his owndevised strategy to fight the crisis through restoration of fiscal discipline.


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Good morning. Over the last three months, my Administration has takenaggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis. As we do

everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving, werealso building a new foundation for lasting prosperity a foundation thatinvests in quality education, lowers health care costs, and develops newsources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.

One of the pillars of that foundation must be fiscal discipline. We came intooffice facing a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion for this year alone, and the costof confronting our economic crisis is high. But we cannot settle for a future

of rising deficits and debts that our children cannot pay.

All across America, families are tightening their belts and making hardchoices. Now, Washington must show that same sense of responsibility.

That is why we have identified two trillion dollars in deficit-reductions overthe next decade, while taking on the special interest spending that doesntadvance the peoples interests.

But we must also recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of todaywith old habits and stale thinking. So much of our government was built todeal with different challenges from a different era. Too often, the result is

wasteful spending, bloated programs, and inefficient results.

Its time to fundamentally change the way that we do business inWashington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need

to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, andmore creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense ofresponsibility for every dollar that is spent.

Earlier this week, I held my first Cabinet meeting and sent a clear message:

cut what doesnt work. Already, weve identified substantial savings. And inthe days and weeks ahead, we will continue going through the budget line

by line, and well identify more than 100 programs that will be cut oreliminated.

But we cant stop there. We need to go further, and we need an all-hands-

on-deck approach to reforming government. Thats why Im announcingseveral steps that my Administration will take in the weeks ahead to restorefiscal discipline while making our government work better.

First, we need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or entitlementpolicies should be paid for. This principle known as PAYGO helpedtransform large deficits into surpluses in the 1990s. Now, we must restore


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that sense of fiscal discipline. And thats why Im calling on Congress to

pass PAYGO legislation like a bill that will be introduced by CongressmanBaron Hill, so that government acts the same way any responsible familydoes in setting its budget.

Second, well create new incentives to reduce wasteful spending and to

invest in what works. We dont want agencies to protect bloated budgets we want them to promote effective programs. So the idea is simple:

agencies that identify savings will get to keep a portion of those savings toinvest in programs that work. The result will be a smaller budget, and amore effective government.

Third, well look for ideas from the bottom up. After all, Americans acrossthe country know that the best ideas often come from workers not justmanagement. Thats why well establish a process through which every

government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can savemoney and perform better. Well put the suggestions that work into

practice. And later this year, I will meet with those who come up with thebest ideas to hear firsthand about how they would make your governmentmore efficient and effective.

And finally, we will reach beyond the halls of government. Many businesses

have innovative ways of using technology to save money, and manyexperts have new ideas to make government work more efficiently.

Government can and must learn from them. So later this year, we willhost a forum on reforming government for the 21st century, so that werealso guided by voices that come from outside of Washington.

We cant sustain deficits that mortgage our childrens future, nor tolerate

wasteful inefficiency. Government has a responsibility to spend thepeoples money wisely, and to serve the people effectively. I will work every

single day that I am President to live up to that responsibility, and totransform our government so that is held to a higher standard of

performance on behalf of the American people.

Thanks.


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Q 1. What did you like about Obama speech?

Well, there are a few many things which I like in this current speech

of 25th April 2009. It is a short speech, focusing entirely upon economic

crisis and how Obama is going to deal with that. His speech really is

attention grabbing and is up to the mind level of a man in the street.

Q 2. Which type of words and phrases or expressions you like?

Aggressive actions Historicaleconomic crisis

As we doeverything that wecan

Lasting prosperity

Powered by Fiscal discipline Budge deficit Tightening beltsMaking hardchoices

Meet thechallenges

Stale thinking Wasteful spending

Bloatedprogrammes

Cut what doesntwork

Q 3. What is Fiscal Discipline?

Fiscal discipline is condition of governments budgeta condition

where the governments budget is a balanced budget. A balanced budget

is when there is neither a budget deficit nor a budget surplus when

revenues equal expenditure ("the accounts balance") particularly by a

government. More generally, it refers to when there is no deficit, but

possibly a surplus.1

Alan V. Deardorff (2010) define it in a more academic way by

putting that [Fiscal Discipline is the] management of the governmentbudget so as to avoid excessive fiscal deficits, thus restraint of

government spending and/or willingness to tax.2

In simple words it means balancing government spending and revenue.

1 Balanced budget. (2011, March 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:29, March 4, 2011,fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balanced_budget&oldid=4168900902 Alan V. Deardorff, 2010, Deardorffs' Glossary of International Economics. Retrieved 04 March, 2011 fromhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/f.html

a b

c

Fig 1: - THREE (3) CONDITIONS OF
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balanced_budget&oldid=416890090http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balanced_budget&oldid=416890090http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/f.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balanced_budget&oldid=416890090http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/f.html


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Comparison of Fiscal Discipline of Pakistan And USA

SIMILARITIES DIFFERENCES

Both the economies are under hugepublic debt.

Pakistan = $58 Billion (49.9% ofGDP)

United States = $14 trillion (93%of GDP)

Pak

deficit is covered throughexternal loans

USA deficit is covered through

internal loansHuge Defense Spending

Pakistan = 2.6% of GDP

USA = 4.3% of GDP

Pak

Policies depends upon the

conditions of foreign fundingagenciesUSA

policies depends upon theeconomists expert opinions

Both the countries are cutting of extraspending through various means

Pak

No serious, solid, and concreatmeasures to restore fiscaldiscipline

USA Serious strategies adopted by

Obama administration forrestoring fiscal discipline

Q 4. What did you learned about Obamas policies for

development?

From his speech of 25th April, 2009, it is evident that Obama has

focused his attention on bringing the US economy out of the fiscal crisis

the county is facing. One of his major strategy for fulfilling this objective is

the fiscal discipline. The US budget was in $1.9 trillion deficit when Obama

stepped into the White House as the president of the state. This deficit,Obama explained, was due to wasteful public spending and bloated

programmes and inefficient results.

The solution formulated by Obama was very simplecut what doesnt

work. His policy includes four (4) major steps.

First, restoration of PAYGO law which states that for every dollar spent

there must be a dollar saved. It means that all new entitlement

programmes (social security etc.) should be paid for. Obama put in his

radio and internet address as;

Now, Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody

else. After a decade of profligacy ( ), the American

people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but dont walk the walk

when it comes to fiscal responsibility. Its easy to get up in front of the


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cameras and rant against exploding deficits. Whats hard is actually

getting deficits under control. But thats what we must do.3

Defending this policy, he further mentioned that;

It was the abandonment of this rule that allowed the previous

administration and previous congresses to pass massive tax cuts for

the wealthy and create an expensive new drug program without

paying for any of it. In a perfect world, Congress would not haveneeded a law to act responsibly, to remember that every dollar spent

would come from taxpayers today or our children tomorrow. But this

isnt a perfect world. This is Washington.4

It indeed is an attention grabbing and quite an impressive speech.

However, there are numerous problems with PAYGO policy.

The second step is to reduce wasteful spending and to invest in

what works. The third step is the introduction of bottom-up approach for

the agencies regarding how to save more money. The final step Obama

intended to take for restoring fiscal discipline is the utilization ofinnovative skills of the private businesses for saving money.

At first, when I listened to Obamas speeches, I was pretty

impressed by the way he expressed his policies and painted them as the

panacea for the crisis ridden US rotting economy. As a research, I started

researching the criticism on his policies. Gradually, I came to know that all

what is said by Obama is not trueor at least does not seem true to some

Republicans.

His policy of PAYGO which is a short for Pay-as-you-go was heavily

criticized by various experts and researchers. Part of the policy/law whichwas mentioned by Obama in his speech was about shining side. What

Obama ignored to tell the US people was the provision that the PAYGO

law/policy will lift the federal debt limit from $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion. It

means spending will continue to increase and further stretch federal

budget deficit.

In a final analysis, I am not for all Obamas policies. Despite the fact

that I am a Structural-Functionalist in my approach, I interpret Obamas

policies using critical framework.

Q 5. What do you think; can we apply those policies for thedevelopment of Pakistan and will hey be fruitful fordevelopment? If yes so how?

In short, the answer to me is Not at All. Obamas policies for

development are totally flawed. His policies based on the ideologies of

fiscal conservatism. It says to reduce the government spending as much

as they can be. It means they believe in a very strict budgeting for public

welfare. The government, based on fiscal conservative ideologies, will cut

the spending on health care, social insurance, social security,

3Josh Gerstein, 2/13/10, President Obama hails return to PAYGO, In POLITICO.COM. Retrieved 04 March, 2011

fromhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.html

4Josh Gerstein, 2/13/10, President Obama hails return to PAYGO, In POLITICO.COM. Retrieved 04 March, 2011fromhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32921.html


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unemployment benefits, child benefits, and all other entitlement benefit

programmes. The same Obama did.

This policy is totally in negation to the human rights basic

principles. It is also against the rightest ideologies of welfare. I my self

believe in more spending on public welfare because more spending on

public welfare means better mental, physical, emotional and social health

by the workers. Better health of the works lead to better production.

Better production leads to more goods in the market for sale or export. It

means more consumption, which expands an economy. So, spending on

public welfare leads to the expansion of the economy, a must condition for

development.

Documents

Obama's Weekly Address, Apil 5, 2009-SES Assignment March 05 2011