Good grief:

So one of the central goals of this administration is restoring fiscal responsibility. Even as we have had to spend our way out of this recession in the near term, we’ve begun to make the hard choices necessary to get our country on a more stable fiscal footing in the long run. So let me just be clear here. Despite what some have claimed, the cost of the Recovery Act is only a very small part of our current budget imbalance. In reality, the deficit had been building dramatically over the previous eight years. We have a structural gap between the money going out and the money coming in.

“restoring fiscal responsibility”

“we have had to spend our way out of this recession”

Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah.

Hah hah hah.

Hah… Ouch. My sides hurt from laughing.

OK, so spending money like it’s going out of style is “fiscally responsible”. Like, for example, spending the fictional “savings” from TARP. [Note to the people with the power of the pen: there are no savings to be had from deficit spending, This is like the pretend “savings” from buying something because it was “on sale”.]

Now, if you’re going to go forward with this imaginary “fiscal responsibility”, this isn’t a horrid way to go about it:

Now, these steps will help, but we also have to address the continuing struggle of small businesses to get loans that they need to start up and grow. To that end, we’re proposing to waive fees and increase the guarantees for SBA-backed loans. And I’m asking my Treasury Secretary to continue mobilizing the remaining TARP funds to facilitate lending to small businesses.

SBA loans are not a horrible way to get a business moving, especially in an environment of tight angel/venture financing. But I’d prefer they take money away from some of the other boondoggle ARRA funding and give the TARP money back.

I haven’t gone through the rest of the speech yet to see how much more “fiscally responsible” deficit spending he’s got lined up; I just picked up that quote from a short AP story summary and had to go see for myself.

Update: CNN’s coverage of this story used the term “cash for caulkers” in its subject line. They didn’t coin it; it’s been out there for a while, it seems. But this was the first time I’ve seen it, and being one to never pass up a good pun, I got an actual belly laugh from it. I have no idea if the program is worth a damn, but the name gets a double thumbs up.