He’s not the next American Idol, but he is our American President. 

Despite Barack Obama’s rock star persona — he smokes, he tweets, he’s got a hot wife — what has the president really done to garner such idolatry?

PARHAM

We need to stop worshipping the president as if he were “The Situation” and join the many who see what he really stands for and how he will negatively affect our generation.

Just like smoking is only cool until you are diagnosed with lung cancer, the president is only cool until our country is filing for bankruptcy, the unemployment rate is higher than ever before and American leadership ceases to exist.

I know, I know. It’s all Bush’s fault. But every president has entered office having to clean up messes from his predecessor — Reagan anyone? — and Obama is no different.

We need a leader, not a whiner. We need someone who still has confidence in our nation and will make decisions to protect us. And most of all, we need someone who cares about our generation and will take steps to secure not only our future, but our kids’ and grandkids’ futures, too. 

So let’s take Obama out of the spotlight and put him under the microscope. At the start of February, Obama presented a $3.8 trillion fiscal budget plan for 2011, with $100 billion in additional stimulus spending — as if we didn’t already spend $787 billion — and higher taxes for the rich in an attempt to lower the deficit.

However, it seems as though his plan will do the exact opposite.  According to the projections, the 2011 deficit is predicted to be a record-breaking $1.3 trillion, with deficits remaining above $700 billion for the rest of the decade. That’s a lot of zeros.   

So what do all these numbers mean? Well, for starters it means that Obama’s promises to cease spending are totally bogus. In terms of spending as a percentage of GDP, even Clinton only spent 8 percent and Bush 3 percent (including 2009). But Obama? A whopping 24 percent — the highest since World War II.

Furthermore, entitlement expenditures, like Medicare and Social Security, are growing faster than tax revenue, which means that discretionary spending, like military, health and transportation, will require borrowing.

 And who do you think the government is going to borrow from?  China (it’s called debt) and you (it’s called taxes).

Raising taxes does not raise revenue, as we — or at least our parents — saw in the Carter years. It slows economic growth, limiting opportunities and increasing the unemployment rate. We’re already averaging 10 percent unemployment, and about 2.1 million jobs lost during the recession won’t be coming back, according to a Wall Street Journal survey.

You may not care about that now, but you will most certainly care about it when you graduate and have to find a job. 

So, Obama’s spending is leaving our generation with an enormous, unsustainable amount of debt. But at least we’ll have free health care and universal college, right?

Wrong. Somebody has to pay for these things and who do you think it’s going to be: homeless Joe Schmo with no job, or you, college-educated working-man? You’ll be better off on the streets. 

And here’s the worst part — we are now perceived as a weak nation in terms of economic, political and military resolve. As Nile Gardiner for the UK Telegraph put it, Obama has appeased Iran, surrendered to Moscow and sided with Marxists in Honduras. He’s bullied Israel, called for a nuclear-free world, and talked of a climate change deal. And now terrorists and host nations see themselves as having carte blanche to hit us, and our allies.  

Bankruptcy, reckless spending and lack of role model qualities.  Maybe Obama is a rock star after all. 

— Kate Parham is a senior from Roswell majoring in magazines and consumer journalism