What Obama Inherited
Here's the scoop on what Obama inherited.
I'm Sick of "Inherited"
The Washington Post babbled again today about Obama inheriting a huge deficit from Bush, blah blah blah. Amazingly enough, a lot of people swallow this nonsense.So once more, I'll try a short civics lesson.Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress, and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party. They controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009, as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011.In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush, somewhat belatedly, got tough on spending increases. For FY 2009, though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office.At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets. And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009.
The preceding bar graph, and write up was sent to Rational Nation USA. As they are an accurate reflection of the reality of today it was posted on this site. If these projections hold even close to true we are in for a rough ride for a long time. Since projections are always based on optimistic assumptions it is likely the numbers will be worse than projected.
Yep, and I always date our downfall to where we cut taxes because of projected budget surpluses...
ReplyDeleteWe may have HAD a surplus but we had trillions in underfunded liabilities....
Its like paying your bills from this week's paycheck and having money left over...and then spending that without planning for the house payment which is due the next week...
I would also note that these numbers show the budget and do not show 'off budget' items...which is how the Bush Administration funded the Afghanistan/Iraq War.
I will give Obama credit for listing the war and agriculture subsidies in his budget...
not a smart thing to do politically but it is about time the American people knew EXACTLY what their government is spending...
TAO - Thank you for pointing out that which has not been talked about as much as it ought to have been. IE: Unfunded liabilities = social security, Medicare, Medicaid...
ReplyDeleteI don't want to get into an argument here. But lets put it ALL on the table.
Whether you chose to admit it or not you are as much a conservative as a liberal. Gee, what a surprise! Is it not true this describes "middle America?"
Just a thought.