"The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country's current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion's share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies -- particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues."

"By the end of the decade, CBPP projects that, on the current trajectory, the Bush tax cuts, exacerbated by the economic downturn, combined with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for the significant majority of public debt as a share of GDP."

"Without those factors, and without the need for stimulus measures under President Obama, CBPP projects that the debt-to-GDP ratio would have dropped under both Presidents Bush and Obama."

Here's the chart:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/CBPPpublicdebt.jpg 

So what you're saying is President Obama has completely failed at altering the current trajectory in a more favorable manner and has only managed to add to it.

....Or are you saying we should not re-elect President Bush?

You had me @ talking points......


We really should have %75/90 tax rate. The feds know best and we shouldn't complain about "their" money.

Really, because historically when tax rates were lower it was problematic.

Yawn....

I'm gonna go watch porn...

We've covered this again and again and again...

THERE

WAS

NEVER

ANY

SURPLUS

FROM

CLINTON'S

ADMINISTRATION

JUST


PROJECTIONS!!!!

Neither.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/HistoricalTables.pdf 

The Clinton years showed the effects of a large tax increase that Clinton pushed through in his first year, and that Republicans incorrectly claim is the "largest tax increase in history." It fell almost exclusively on upper-income taxpayers. Clinton's fiscal 1994 budget also contained some spending restraints. An equally if not more powerful influence was the booming economy and huge gains in the stock markets, the so-called dot-com bubble, which brought in hundreds of millions in unanticipated tax revenue from taxes on capital gains and rising salaries.

Clinton's large budget surpluses also owe much to the Social Security tax on payrolls. Social Security taxes now bring in more than the cost of current benefits, and the "Social Security surplus" makes the total deficit or surplus figures look better than they would if Social Security wasn't counted. But even if we remove Social Security from the equation, there was a surplus of $1.9 billion in fiscal 1999 and $86.4 billion in fiscal 2000. So any way you count it, the federal budget was balanced and the deficit was erased, if only for a while.

Update, Feb. 11: Some readers wrote to us saying we should have made clear the difference between the federal deficit and the federal debt. A deficit occurs when the government takes in less money than it spends in a given year. The debt is the total amount the government owes at any given time. So the debt goes up in any given year by the amount of the deficit, or it decreases by the amount of any surplus. The debt the government owes to the public decreased for a while under Clinton, but the debt was by no means erased.

Other readers have noted a USA Today story stating that, under an alternative type of accounting, the final four years of the Clinton administration taken together would have shown a deficit. This is based on an annual document called the "Financial Report of the U.S. Government," which reports what the governments books would look like if kept on an accrual basis like those of most corporations, rather than the cash basis that the government has always used. The principal difference is that under accrual accounting the government would book immediately the costs of promises made to pay future benefits to government workers and Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. But even under accrual accounting, the annual reports showed surpluses of $69.2 billion in fiscal 1998, $76.9 billion in fiscal 1999, and $46 billion for fiscal year 2000. So even if the government had been using that form of accounting the deficit would have been erased for those three years.

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/during_the_clinton_administration_was_the_federal.html 

"The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country's current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion's share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies -- particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues."

Translated:

One careless homeowner left a can of gasoline in his garage, which most certainly exacerbated the situation when the 12-inch gas main in the middle street blew up, taking out 6 blocks of homes.

Now do something productive. I'm going fishing in Canada next week. Be a love and bake me some cookies to take along.

:-"

So is there some point you're trying to make?

Yes. His point is to stir the pot and get people arguing about stuff we've discussed 200 times already. His article has so many holes it in that I don't even have the energy to address it - it's not worth my time......

The United States public debt is a measure of the obligations of the United States federal government and is presented by the United States Treasury in two components and one total:

* Debt Held by the Public, representing all federal securities held by institutions or individuals outside the United States Government;
* Intragovernmental Holdings, representing U.S. Treasury securities held in accounts which are administered by the United States Government, such as the OASI Trust fund administered by the Social Security Administration; and
* Total Public Debt Outstanding, which is the sum of the above components.

As of May 6, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding of the United States of America was $14.32 trillion and was approximately 98% of calendar year 2010's annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.66 trillion. Using 2010 figures, the total debt (96.3% of GDP) ranked 12th highest against other nations.

Fuzz pays no taxes.He does'nt care...

I don't? That would be nice actually.

It would be right there in the title of the thread, but you know that and are playing this stupid game once again.

You played stupid when you started this thread. Federal budget deficits under Bush and Obama are easy to research. How's Obama doing?

The real issue with budget deficits is will the country get value from them and that depends on what we are borrowing the money for in the first place.

Obama isn't doing good at all. He renewed the Bush tax cuts for the top earners and that was a huge mistake, as that chart shows.

And no, the topic isn't stupid, right wing hack, it shows that the big complaints coming from Republicans about the debt is because of their policies and they are blaming Democrats. You know how the right wing likes to blame Democratic controlled houses for these things? Well, who is in charge of the House now and has been since Obama has been in office? Funny how now it's Obama's fault. The blame shifts to the closest Democrat.

I know Obama isn't perfect, I would just expect a little consistency once in a while. Too much to ask?

Well the senate wont vote on a budget......2 years now and the Kenyan King has to sign it....

Steny Hoyer: “America is not broke”
Although the annual federal budget deficit is expected to hit $1.65 trillion this year and the national debt is already at $14.34 trillion, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said today he disagrees with House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) assessment that America is broke.
“America is not broke,” Hoyer said at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.. “America has extraordinary resources and we can use those resources, both intellectual and financial, to get us to a place where we are again a fiscally sound nation, a fiscally balanced nation, and future generations are not at risk.”

checkmate...

wheel,