Colin Powell Cautions Obama On Big Government

WASHINGTON — Colin Powell worries that President Barack Obama is trying to tackle too many big issues at one time and he offers this advice: take a hard look at costs and consider the additional red tape that will be created.

"The right answer is, `Give me a government that works,'" the former secretary of state said in a television interview to be aired Sunday. "Keep it as small as possible," added Powell, who said he has spoken recently with Obama and stays in touch with him. Powell, a Republican, endorsed Obama last year over the GOP presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Obama wants to overhaul the health care system and take on climate change while also helping the country emerge from the recession.

"I think one of the cautions that has to be given to the president _ and I've talked to some of his people about this _ is that you can't have so many things on the table that you can't absorb it all. And we can't pay for it all," Powell said.

"And I never would have believed that we would have budgets that are running into the multi-trillions of dollars, and we are amassing a huge, huge national debt that, if we don't pay for in our lifetime, our kids and grandkids and great grandchildren will have to pay for it."

It's not a new theme for Powell

He complained about the government's size and intrusiveness in his 1996 speech to the Republican National Convention. He said then that the nation no longer could afford more entitlements, higher taxes and more bureaucracy. In the interview with CNN's "State of the Union" that is to air Sunday, Powell said he hasn't changed his mind.

"Keep it as small as possible. Keep the tax burden on the American people as small as possible, but at the same time, have government that is solving the problems of the people," he said.

He said Obama "has to start really taking a very, very hard look at what the cost of all this is. And, how much additional bureaucracy and will it be effective bureaucracy."

CNN released excerpts of the interview in advance of the broadcast.

Comments

[Karel1947]

I wish Colin Powell would make up his mind one way or the other and then stick to his story. A few weeks ago, he said he believed the American people wanted bigger government and wanted to pay higher taxes. The Republicans then questioned his party loyalty and put him in with Arlen Specter as another who switched parties. Now Powell is espousing his concerns over the size of government, his concerns about the deficit and higher taxes. General Powell, WHICH IS IT? Where DO you stand on the issues? You must be getting dizzy from wobbling on that fence!

[delta7777]

.
Obama has to start really taking a very, very hard look at what the cost of all this is.

Thomas Jefferson made a few relevant comments:

"Delay is preferable to error."

"We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country."

"the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale"
.

[Dynamohum]

Healthcare has been being delayed since NIXON unleashed the HMOs on us!! That was over 40 years ago, so do not lecture those of us who really understand that the cost of care and the structure it currently has is not sustainable!! Something must be done without delay. If it is done right it will be extremely cost contained in a relatively short amount of time (say 5 years). Big money is already being spent...restructuring the system will SAVE money and so much so it will make up the outlays with the SAVINGS.

[masher]

Uh...based on what you have seen so far with Obama (the GM bailouts, PPIP program, and the Chrysler bailouts) what makes you think Obama is on the side of US working folks?

I can see many ways that the Obama health care plan will just be a huge waste of money. I can easily imagine a plan where billions are funneled to insurence corporations at taxpayer expense. I can easily see a program so bad that it is killed and we delay health care reform another 30 years...and we are indebt.

[dredeize]

Good post, Dyna

[dredeize]

A true Republik.k.k.an (masher) at heart. That party is irrelevant now, so their views are pointless!

[delta7777]

Healthcare has an enormously powerful lobby.

Nothing meaningful can or will be accomplished
until this form of monetary corruption (lobbying)
is eliminated from our government.

Nothing meaningful can or will be accomplished until
Government by the Banking Industry is eliminated.
.

[delta7777]

.
"If it is done right it will be extremely cost contained in a relatively short amount of time"

That's a big "IF", isn't it ???

If the current economic "recovery" as measure of
government doing right by the taxpayer
is any indication, I wouldn't bet on your "IF".

If you mean "doing right' by Wall Street and the Insurance Industry,
then there is a very good chance it may happen,
but be sure the cost to taxpayers will be securely contained
into the pay packages of the executives.

AIG and their ilk
probably are looking for another boost by now, anyway.
.

[earlyearlyearly]

Colon..why don't you show us some pictures like your trailers of chemical weapons so we can understand what you mean. Oh yeah, that wasn't true.....so you are credible, How?

[hapiday]

The deficits are very scary for a lot of people and the deficit that was created during the Bush Administration was due a large part to the wars. If a deficit is created we must at least have something to show for all the money that is being spent. There is a difference in spending money that benefits private institutions as opposed to benefiting the future of the country. This country has a negative deficit and it is standing still, not processing. The money that President Obama is spending will add on to the deficit, however it is to move the country forward so that we can say to our children these of things we have to show for.

If a child wants to further their education they are going to create debt, but you don't tell them not to further their education. Receiving that diaploma is what they have to show, for the debt they created. Receiving a reasonable wage is what they have to show, being intellectually sound is what they have to show. Being socially conscious and empathic of the less fortunate is what they have to show.

[edwarvir]

Colin Powell, please don't dump on our President
just to stay in good standing with the neocons.
Give him some suggestions, that would be the better
thing to do.

[barkrudedog69]

He did offer suggestions. That is the point. You just cant see past your left view mirror.

[Dynamohum]

His suggestions are NOT HIS. They are the republican't party line, that he seems to be towing once more!!

[jweider]

He's hardly in good standing with the Neocons nor does he want to be after the way they crapped all over him with the UN to get their invasion of Iraq under way.

[hyjanks]

He did their bidding at the UN. He said nothing when he could have changed the course of war. He's a coward.

[polarcap2]

too late to stop this wingnut now, Colin - this country will be bankrupt before you can yell Bambam!

[MoEls]

hmm, as "Colin" said: Obama is takin care of a hell lot of themes.
what is the alternative? Obama's js the messenger that honestly points out what we got on the table. I'm sure 3 of 4 problems were on the screne of economists and demoscopes when Bush was improvin his abilities on the fairway before 9/11.
Ignorance is not an option. We were drunk of cheap money now we have a cheap headache ;)

[forestnfama]

what planet do you live on planetcap2. Obama inherited this debt from Bush and Co.

[hyjanks]

Where was the General when his former boss was spending a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq, tax breaks for the rich and sending the middle class into the poor house and the poor out onto the streets?
Sorry, General Powell, you had you chance to make a difference; you could have resigned immediately after you knew that that Iraq debacle was just that. Instead, you "stood by your man" while he mortgaged our country's future.
You have no credibility on any issue, bub.

[instagladiator]

You need to do some researching on C. Powell over the past decade or so before you make statements like that.

[hyjanks]

So what does your research show? I SAW a guy telling lies that he knew were lies before the General Assembly of the United Nations. What did you see?

[citizensrus]

Colin Powell...Colin Powell investigation into My Lai, Colin Powell orchestrating the Highway of Death, Colin Powell regrets lies on Iraq WMD.
The research doesn't speak well of Colin Powell.

[iseebs]

What is all this nonsense about too big government?

I want my government, elected by the people of America, to be big, powerful and able to resist any approach by special interest groups in order to govern on behalf of the people.
If government is not doing that, we elect someone else.

This is called a Democracy !!

[instagladiator]

You really don't understand your own government, do you?

[hyjanks]

So, give us YOUR understanding of the government.
That ought to be interesting.

[harriscrl3]

For so long this government has helped wallstreet has helped the rich and told the vulnerable to pull themselves up by the bootstrap. They have let rich corporate interest cause them to ignore healthcare, energy and a whole host of other problems. Its because we IGNORE them why they've balloned the way they have and now someone is trying to fix them the whining about big government starts.

It wasnt big government when they gave a TRILLION DOLLARS to wallstreet. It wasnt Big government when they gave Tax breaks to the top 2% while ignoring the rest. It wasnt big government when the LIED and manipulated their way into Iraq but now its big government. It wasnt big government when they tossed out the consitution and crapped on civil liberties but now its big government because we want Healthcare with a public option and a better energy policy.

Seriously Colin Powell is the last person that should be talking to Obama about big government after he served in the BIGGEST GOVERNMENT EVER.

[instagladiator]

You really don't know that much about Colin Powell, do you?

[rsprags]

Amen, H3!

[cultkicker]

iseebs.... This government IS run by big business, multi-national corporations, and the Illuminati. Do you understand that?

[iseebs]

Right, because the government we had in the past was week and owned by big corporation.

Unfortunately this is still the case today and it need to be changed.

[iridium53]

Gen. Powell needs to reevaluate his statements.

The Republican drive for small government is nice, but some things are better done by government.

For instance, a healthcare system. If, by law or economics, I must pay for healthcare insurance then I want that payment to be as effective as possible. Insurance companies now take about a third of the payment for their own profit - and add no value except to apply arbitrary, changing, Corporate-driven, limits to that healthcare - leaving everyone with the possibility of financial ruin should they become really sick with cancer or some other major disease. And, into which family does cancer not become a reality?

If I have to pay, why not pay the government? They would be just as efficient as big companies, perhaps better. And, there wouldn't be an arbitrary limit on coverage.

And, if I HAVE to pay someone, then why not pay it in taxes instead of payments? It doesn't much matter to me whether I pay in taxes or in payments - either way it is a payment I must make.

And, no matter how much the government is inefficient, and they truly are since Obama can't run a popsicle stand, they are more efficient than insurance companies like Cigna.

[craphappens]

Amen.

[power2theppl]

How would the government be more efficient if there is no competition? Competition is what makes companies more efficient. The government can't even balance the budget. How is the government being efficient if they don't balance their budget? If a company doesn't balance their budget, they go out of business.

[Ant]

The job of government is not to make a profit; it is to provide for the general welfare and they need taxes to do it. If they don't raise taxes, they're not going to balance the budget.

[instagladiator]

Your government was NEVER meant to be in competition with anyone. That is the whole problem. Government employee's, from the POTUS down to the lowest classification, have one boss and one boss only, YOU "the taxpayer".
Seems as though you're not doing a good job at supervision.

[instagladiator]

I beg to differ. Whenever a new branch or agency is added to the government, the costs are, and always will be astronomical, and who pays for that?

Using healthcare as sideline topic doesn't help this topic of "Big government", it hinders it. And it's not such much a burden on your executive branch as it would be on your congress.

I would suggest that you do a little research as to the actual amount of government agencies that have at the moment, you'll be surprised at what you find.

And then try to determine the "efficiency" that any of these agencies provide.

[Ant]

How do you define efficiency?

[quantumspin]

So in 2009, 510 billion + billions for the Iraq war + billions off budged for DID is fine, but any domestic spending, such as health care for American citizens, is going to ruin the country?

We have 700+ bases around the world, and can't deliver decent jobs and health care at home, people go to bed hungry, including children. Bush did nothing for the country, but here's Powell, safely in retirement, worth tens of millions, lecturing us about 'over spending.' The man's crazzzyyy.

[instagladiator]

Pay attention, he's been warning of this very thing for the past decade or so.

[hyjanks]

Give us examples, please.

[James Redmond]

He's a citizen and has his right. But i'd really like to hear from him first, WTF was he thinking through his period under Bush, on the record as he's making his opinions of Obama known. Man up, Colin. Step up or step down. Disclose fully why you corroborated with an International crime wave on the part of the military industrial, causing needless deaths and corruption that we will be digging ourselves up out of for decades. You've been extremely brave to stick up for the integrity of the right in contrast to the likes of Cheney, you have a lot of credit coming where it's due, but where it's not coming to you could use some clarification. Why did you go along with them? Why did you sell out? Why haven't we heard the real reasons why? If Bush publicly announced in 1999 that he wanted a war with Iraq, how did you not hear about it and act on preventing that premeditation?

[instagladiator]

You first need to understand who runs your government. Then, you might be able to make a reasonable comment about C. Powell.

[hyjanks]

Who are you anyway? Powell's corrupt son?

[James Redmond]

The people are supposed to run it, the people didn't want a war. It's not a Democracy for nothing.

[ClownPosse]

Even Norman Swartzkoff thought Powell was a gutless, unprincipled sissy !

He Was Right !

[instagladiator]

Opinions are like "the opening at the lower end of the alimentary canal", we all have one.

[judiNJ]

The President is pursuing exactly what he said he would during the campaign. The only "additional items" on the agenda is the mess the Bush administration left and Sonya Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Anyone that is now saying it is "too much" just was not listening.

[SamKnause]

What entitlements is he referring to? Decent affordable health care, clean air and water, decent paying jobs, green technology to get us off foreign oil and make us more secure, protection to keep our food supply safe, regulation to keep banks from stealing our pensions, 401K's, and credit card companies from raping us with their mafia interest rates and outlandish fees.

[CarolinaDem]

Sounds about right. Whatever restricts opportunity for profit is evil.

[bigsexyshaq]

I hate to say this but Rush is right. Colin Powell is quite opportunistic. The poll numbers drop a bit, and he gets to the closest interviewer and criticizes Obama's "socialist" "big government" policies.