By Bill O'Reilly
A few months ago, President Obama appointed a commission to examine America's debt, now standing at more than $13 trillion. The president appointed Erskine Bowles, a former top adviser to Bill Clinton, to co-chair the commission. And now Mr. Bowles is delivering his verdict.
Click here to watch "Talking Points"!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERSKINE BOWLES, DEBT COMMISSION CO-CHAIR: What's clear to me from just glancing at it is that if we don't restore some fiscal sanity around here as a nation, we are going to go broke. I know that's not a word people like to use, but it happens to be true. We face the most predictable, economic crisis in history. And if we stay on automatic pilot, the debt we are accumulating will be like a cancer. It will definitely destroy this country from within.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Wow. What an amazing statement and one that should trouble every American.
Again, the president appointed Mr. Bowles, a Democrat, to investigate the nation's debt, and he says disaster lies ahead.
Now, how will Mr. Obama react? Will he stop the enormous spending? Will he cut back on entitlements? Will he re-evaluate Obamacare? If I had to bet, I'd say no. The president will not do any of those things. Of course, I could be wrong.
But this is not just about Mr. Obama. It's about liberalism. What Erskine Bowles is really saying is that America can no longer afford liberal policies. The country simply does not have enough money to pay the bills of hundreds of millions of Americans.
Right now, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, health subsidies, welfare payments, unemployment benefits and a variety of other social spending programs are bankrupting the country.
And so, the most liberal president in the nation's history, Barack Obama, is faced with a very painful reality: Income redistribution and entitlements may very well lead to the country to economic collapse.
"Talking Points" suspects liberal Democrats have tried to tax their way out of the mess. Beginning in 2011, taxes on almost everything will rise, but this might throw the economy back into recession. If American consumers spend less because they're paying more to the government, that will obviously harm the economy. And even if that doesn't happen, the money raised by increased taxes will not cover what Mr. Obama wants to spend.
So clearly this is a "Barack and a hard place" situation, and it's not just Mr. Obama's fault. President Bush spent an incredible amount of money in his eight years in office.
But the buck, so to speak, stops now with Mr. Obama. Will he change course, or will we all go down?
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Code Pink, a radical left organization, as you may know. They get a lot of publicity by protesting stuff, and now Code Pink is mad about BP, so they're getting naked.
Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We bare our bodies today, and we show the naked truth of BP.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuel has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuel has got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: What do you get when you drill, baby, drill? The naked truth: spill, baby, spill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now we consider legitimate protests to be patriotic, and you can decide if that was legitimate.
On the pinhead front, Jesse Jackson is now involved in the LeBron James decision to play for the Miami Heat.
As you may know, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, James' old team, has hammered the basketball star, to which Mr. Jackson replied: "He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality."
We believe Rev. Jackson is going overboard. Nothing racial about this. The good people of Cleveland are simply upset. Jackson may be a pinhead.
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