Clean your plate before you take more.

President Obama's speech today is very inspirational. He's trying to explain where he plans to take us, and gives a fair enough summary of "how we got here today."

Still, I wish there would have been some accountability, financially.

The pundits, historians and chroniclers no doubt will mark today's speech at Georgetown as a date he officially called for a revamp of Social Security entitlements, for example.

But short of numbers, I tend to agree that the speechwriter here, and President Obama himself, aren't really straying off the familiar path to lead us out of any woods. There's hope ... that the light ahead isn't just a small clearing, but the actual outskirts of the wooded territory we've wandered into.

But of course, you want to keep your head, and not bank it all on what you think is that light ahead being the way out...

Eventually, somebody within the administration will have to produce some credible numbers, some reassuring proof that major spending now indeed will prove a wise and efficient investment. Otherwise -- well, talk to the parents of some youngsters who have college degrees, but that doesn't exactly place them on the cutting edge of technology, entrepreneurship, or first in line at the hiring hall.

Green light bulbs, new trees, and solar panels indeed are wise property investments, and can save an individual and his family money in the long run. But not every day is sunny, and not every tree can feed a family. Critics can indeed respond positively to better choices from local governments and businesses, and energy efficiency definitely can be encouraged by the government.

But show me some numbers that these money savings are something to bank the American economy on. I think the mass production, and big changes to re-fit society are years in the future in terms of generating jobs to put people to work. Or is everyone with their new college degree going to become an inventor, is that the idea?

Absent numbers, I don't get how this plan will pay for itself, either in the long-run or quickly, so let's not insinuate that people who want to see the estimated price tag for all the extras are thinking short-term.

I appreciate the attempts at honesty -- if I was called on in a town hall meeting, I'd ask the president's opinion if he believes all this government spending he says is necessary now! to stimulate the economy in response to household frugality, is really going to be short term. Does he really believe that?

Or will the bloat from today be the entitlement reform called for in 50 years from our heirs? I'd consider it an important speech if you could show me -- numerically -- how the administration policy makers have indeed struggled with that issue and established disincentive safeguards -- meaning no one would see today's "extras" as encouraging bad behavior.

(I truly believe that the out-of-wedlock birth rate today -- even amongst upper middle class children of professionals who marry a few years later when it's financially more convenient -- is due to the automatic assumption that a single pregnant woman, and her child, deserves prenatal childcare including delivery and healthcare costs, if she and the baby's daddy are not stepping up together to see the child born and raise it without "extra" government help, short of a public education that provides the three R's. Tax credits and subsidies for daycare, but nothing for families that choose to prvately insure their own children's heath, or stay home and parent. This is good for society?)

We're still stuck on the poor incentives of the state health care programs today; we should open the floodgates to spending more money in these down times, before we have the answers on how human nature will respond to providing more government teats?

I'm getting carried away with my descriptive language here, but let me finish with one story that probably is familiar to many readers out there:

Personally, I liked the "House on the Rock" bit that was written in no doubt with the Catholic Georgetown audience in mind. President Obama tried to secularize it, nothing wrong with that. (Though I see some critical commenters are emphasizing that government can never replace God, just as the Easter Bunny can never replace completely the three crosses as symbolic of the recent Christian holiday. But I digress...)

We all know people who draw up wonderful plans for house rebuilding. Maybe it's not even a remodeling job, working with what the previous owners left you, but let's say you're even lucky enough to be starting to build from scratch...

The ones who budget properly often scale back their big plans when the numbers come in. You want to err on the side of building a cushion -- so if something comes in over cost, you can absorb that into the budget and continue with the project. Modesty first -- there is plenty of time tomorrow to finance the "extras".

It's better to scale back the project early on, than to find out later that you are going to cut back on the quality of materials, or leave parts of the big wonderful plan unfinished and sucking money. That's embarrassing, and teaches you not to put the dreams before the numbers. Happiness and hope is good, but for the "House on the Rock" metaphor to work, humility in planning is emphasized, and the knowledge that there are many many things beyond the homeowner's control that could return him to dust based on no actions or misactions of his own.


I wonder if anyone in this administration has actually grappled with finite budgets, and the sinking realization that sometimes you are in this alone financially. That friends are not always there to call on, available with the needed cash to finance the property expansion, the house remodeling. Once that person realizes -- it really is sweat equity that fuels pride to rebuild and see through any hard times, then maybe he doesn't end up right away in a house with all the "extras", but still lives in secure comfort working today and paying his way as he goes.

Then tomorrow's needs are determined by tomorrow's dollars and the household, slowly but in a planned way, grows until one day somebody notices, "My, what a wonderful house!" and perhaps wishes to emulate the builder.