Romney: Obama’s reckless spending fans a 'prairie fire of debt'

Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa this afternoon, Romney took President Obama to task for his incessant spending and borrowing:

“Today America faces a financial crisis of debt and spending that threatens what it means to be an American. Here in the heartland you know in your hearts that it’s wrong. We can’t spend another four years talking about solving a problem that we only make worse every day. When the men and women who settled the Iowa prairie saw a fire in the distance, they didn’t look around for someone else to save them or go back to sleep hoping the wind might blow another direction. They knew their fate was in their hands and so it is today. A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation and every day we fail to act we feed that fire with our own lack of resolve.”

Romney went on to hit Obama for the so-called stimulus, the ever unpopular ObamaCare and the more than five trillion dollars the Obama deficits have added to the national debt:

“President Obama started his days in office with the trillion-dollar stimulus package – the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure by the federal government in history. And remember this: the stimulus wasn’t just wasted – it was borrowed and wasted. We still owe the money, we’re still paying interest on it, and it’ll be that way long after this presidency ends in January.

Then there was Obamacare. Even now nobody knows the exact cost of that new program. And that uncertainty has done great harm to our economy. Employers aren’t hiring, entrepreneurs are worried, all because of a massive, European-style entitlement that Americans didn’t want and can’t afford.

Through his own decisions, this President has added more than five trillion dollars to the national debt, which now stands at 15.7 trillion dollars.”

Then Romney promised to lead us out of this debt and spending crisis:

“As president, I will approach debt and spending differently. My time spent building businesses and leading state government taught me that we need to hold every department and agency to a simple test: If something can be done better and more efficiently outside the federal government, then that’s where it belongs. Wherever we have the option of returning functions back to the states, to local governments, or, better still, to the private sector, that’s what we will do. We will make the federal government simpler, smaller, smarter – and, by the way, more in keeping with the vision of the Framers of our Constitution.”

The excerpts are from Mitt Romney’s speech as prepared for delivery. The excerpts are from Mitt Romney’s speech as prepared for delivery. The entire transcript is available here.

Last month the Romney campaign released a video highlighting President Obama’s broken promises on spending, deficits and the national debt. You can watch the “Broken Promises: Spending” video here.

Today the national debt is 15,674,182,767,474.36 or $15.7 trillion, it was when President Obama took office it was $10,626,877,048,913.08 or $10.6 trillion.

In 2004, when the deficit was $413 billion and the national debt was $7,419,244,676,835.15 or $7.4 trillion, Obama said the “monstrous federal deficit” was an “enormous problem.” On July 3, 2008, presidential candidate Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.” Nevertheless, President Obama added more than $5 trillion to the national debt in three years.

President Obama has promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first time at least five times:

February 23, 2009: Obama Pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
February 24, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
May 26, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office
December 8, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
February 14, 2011: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.

Despite those promises Obama has racked up the largest deficits in U.S. history:

FY2009: The federal budget deficit was $1.413 trillion, the highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
FY2011: The federal budget deficit was $1.299 trillion, the second highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
FY2010: The federal budget deficit was $1.294 trillion, the third highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
The CBO projects the deficit at the end of Obama’s first term will be $1.253 trillion, Obama’s fourth straight trillion deficit. (“An Anlysis Of The President’s 2013 Budget,” Congressional Budget Office, 3/16/12)

You shouldn’t be shocked by Obama’s failure to reduce the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. He did warn us there would be “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”