During his tenure in the White House, President Obama has grown the budget from $3.1 trillion in 2009 to more than $3.8 trillion this year.The Democratic Party platform was released late Monday night to little fanfare as the Democratic National Convention got under way.
Hidden within the 39 page document are calls to lower taxes on most Americans, reduce red tape on small businesses and slash the deficit by "cutting out programs we can't afford."
The introduction to the Democratic platform even says, "in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us."
What gives? Did the Democrats send out the Republican platform by mistake?
Those who didn't read the rest of the 26,000-word cure for insomnia, might think the Democrats had turned over a new leaf and discovered the wisdom in commonsense free market, limited government solutions.
Don't be fooled.
The actual substance of the Democratic the platform calls for billions in new taxes, pushes for the further expansion of government and encourages federal spending to increase substantially.
In fact, the Democratic platform recommends launching a number of new federal schemes and increasing the funding for many existing programs. Among the 21 new spending proposals included in the Democratic Party platform are:
• $453 billion over ten years to fund an expansive stimulus-like job creation scheme;
• $18.4 billion over ten years to get the transportation sector to buy into alternative fuels:
• $6.5 billion over five years for global food security and agriculture research;
• $5 billion in one-time funding for clean energy handouts;
• $5 billion in one-time funding to force the government into the broadband Internet business;
• $980 million over ten years for government-funded abortions (if taxpayers' pay for 10 percent of abortions); and
• $45 million over five years to support American Indian and Alaska Native languages.
In total, the Democratic Party platform recommends $674.8 billion in additional federal spending over the next decade.
That hefty sum - more than two-thirds of a trillion dollars - doesn't even include the 18 percent increase in the cost of electricity that is expected to result from the platform's plan to mandate that 80 percent of America's electricity come from clean energy sources by 2035.
The $674.8 billion price tag represents only the most conservative figures available from the bill texts, Congressional Budget Office cost estimates and news reports related to proposed legislation that would achieve the goals of the platform. It is possible, if not likely, that the final tally may be even more costly to taxpayers if Democrats have their way.
Democrats are quick to point out that they have a plan to pay for all of these new programs. That plan? Hike taxes like crazy and hope against hope that the money comes in.
Since only 85 million - or 59% - of the 143 million Americans who filed actually paid taxes, according to the IRS, just funding the $674.8 billion in new spending recommended by the Democratic platform would cost the average American taxpayer an additional $7,939 in new taxes.
All that spending doesn't even include the already enacted increases in spending by President Obama and the Democratic Party. In his first year in office alone, Obama increased the already bloated federal budget by 14.3 percent - while inflation rose only 1.6 percent. During his tenure in the White House, Obama has grown the budget from $3.1 trillion in 2009 to more than $3.8 trillion this year.
Given that startling growth in the size of government, but so little to show for it in terms of job creation, economic recovery or an increase in quality of life during Obama's time in office, it isn't surprising that the platform doesn't spend much time focusing on the president's limited successes. How could it?
Instead, the Democrats use the platform to criticize Mitt Romney, attack the Republican Party and - you guessed it - blame the Bush Administration.
The Democratic platform uses Romney's name 22 times, mentions Republicans 37 times and brings up George W. Bush three times. By contrast, the Republican platform maintains a sense of class, refusing to drag Obama through the mud, despite the president's failures. Instead of placing blame, Republicans focused more on what they hoped to accomplish. In the GOP platform, Obama's name and the Democratic Party were mentioned only four times in total.
Ironically, the title of the Democratic platform is "Moving America Forward." While that title may conjure images of looking to the future, the Democrats' platform spends most of the time focused firmly on the past: faulting previous administrations, embracing outmoded notions of expansive, intrusive government, and championing long-debunked tax and spend economic theories.
Given the perilous state of the economy and the ever growing size and scope of the government under Obama and the Democratic Party, if the Democrats' pricy platform is moving America anywhere, it's straight off the edge of a cliff.