rai
Executive summary:
President Obama signed the bill raising the debt limit to $14.294 trillion.
The law also requires any new, non-emergency spending to be "covered" by new taxes or spending cuts.
Opinion:
President Obama and the democrats are not serious about reducing the deficit. The deficit was bad before, but we are entering new territory where it might be mathematically impossible for future generations to pay it back.
Get out the torches and pitchforks.
How is this worse than the president before him that ran the line of credit up to the limit? Don't get me wrong... when the cards are maxed out the wrong thing to do is get more credit, but I don't see it as any worse than the previous administrations management of our money. Why get out the pitch forks for this one when you defended the last?
ReplyDeleteGWB did not run the credit card of the US "up to the limit". Sorry, that is just false. His spending, while too much, is not in the same league as what Obama and his Democrat congress have accomplished in one year and what they still plan to spend. There is also a constitutional and moral difference between money spent for constitutionally mandated functions of government, like national defense, and new entitlement programs that have one main purpose: to buy votes for democrats.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, the national debt stood at $5.7-trillion when GWB took office. GWB ran up more debt faster than nearly all of his predecessors combined: just under $4.9-trillion.
ReplyDeleteObama has actually increased the rate of spending if you take his spending so far and assume it is going to continue at the same rate.
But that assessment ignores two things. The current rate of spending started with GWB just before he left office. If we had taken his last year of spending and multiplied it by eight (kind of the same as taking Obama's first and doing the same), then his would have been even higher.
It also ignores the probability of reduced spending. We shouldn't (please, god, please) see any more "bail outs" like both Bush and Obama put into place. The plan is also to reduce military spending in both war areas. Even with increases from things like health care it is likely we will not see the same rate of spending as in this first year.
I am not defending the other spending mind you. I would WANT a president who spent WAY less than what Obama has been spending and even less than what GWB spent.
I just see Obama's spending mania a continuation of the spending increase started under Bush. It makes me made, but not just at the current party. Getting out the pitchforks and torches for this guy seems disingenuous, regardless of what the spending is on (constitutional or not).
Newsflash: Conservatives weren't happy about spending under GWB. We opposed the ridiculous Medicare entitlements, education spending, etc. Weren't you paying attention? This was GWB's attempt to be "bipartisan," which the left repaid him by calling him "Hitler" almost daily until people hated him so much they would vote for anyone, even Obama. Nice, huh? And don't start on Iraq/Afghanistan spending. It isn't even close to our entitlement spending. Not. Even. Close. End of discussion.
ReplyDeleteMore newswflashes:
GWB passed the bailouts because all the "experts" were telling him to or the country would die tomorrow, as was the president-elect. So as a lame duck president, he did the nice, "bipartisan" thing and did what his replacement wanted. So I think you can pin that almost entirely on Obama.
What on God's green earth makes you think that Obama is going to ratchet down spending after this year? He is still trying to pass health care, wanting even more stimulus, and on and on! Do you still believe anything he said during the campaign. Why??????????????