the debt chart

[Anonymous]

The White House picked up the chart that The Atlantic published a few days ago and created this --
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/us-national-debt

[jsteele]

So, Bush policies added 7 trillion to the debt and Obama's policies added 1.4 trillion. Let's blame Obama for the debt.

[Anonymous]

Of course it is all Obama's fault, he won the election! I didn't ever understand why anyone wanted to be President after Bush. He sunk this country. But hey, deficits don't matter!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course it is all Obama's fault, he won the election! I didn't ever understand why anyone wanted to be President after Bush. He sunk this country. But hey, deficits don't matter!!

?

[Anonymous]

Dick Cheney uttered the phrase, "deficits don't matter." Yet people actually believe Obama created all the debt.

[Anonymous]

The Obama has continued both wars. Obama expanded Afghanistan. Obama started a 3rd war in Libya. Obama kept Guantanamo open. The Democrats extended and endorsed the Bush tax cuts with majorities in house, senate and the Presidency validating that the tax cuts are good for the economy. Obama added Obamacare. GOP would be happy to return to the exact dollar amount spent in 2008. Democrats would freak out, END OF STORY. Charts leave all this out. Just go back to 2008 spending. Deficits are the democrats problem, pass the balanced budget so we can undo Bush's spending LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Obama has continued both wars. Obama expanded Afghanistan. Obama started a 3rd war in Libya. Obama kept Guantanamo open. The Democrats extended and endorsed the Bush tax cuts with majorities in house, senate and the Presidency validating that the tax cuts are good for the economy. Obama added Obamacare. GOP would be happy to return to the exact dollar amount spent in 2008. Democrats would freak out, END OF STORY. Charts leave all this out. Just go back to 2008 spending. Deficits are the democrats problem, pass the balanced budget so we can undo Bush's spending LOL.

Wow, so the END OF STORY is that it does not matter which president racked up our deficits. The fact that our budget was BALANCED before your bozo got into office is irrelevant. Was he just trying to follow the expected policies of his successor?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:The Obama has continued both wars. Obama expanded Afghanistan. Obama started a 3rd war in Libya. Obama kept Guantanamo open. The Democrats extended and endorsed the Bush tax cuts with majorities in house, senate and the Presidency validating that the tax cuts are good for the economy. Obama added Obamacare. GOP would be happy to return to the exact dollar amount spent in 2008. Democrats would freak out, END OF STORY. Charts leave all this out. Just go back to 2008 spending. Deficits are the democrats problem, pass the balanced budget so we can undo Bush's spending LOL.

While you are correct about all of this, you seem not to realize that Obamacare actually lowers the deficit. So, if we were playing the old Sesame Street game, that one wouldn't belong.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure the GOP will offer to raise the ceiling again in the spring with a balanced budget amendment. Then they will compromise and drop the balanced budget amendment split the difference with a repeal of obamacare. Obama care lowers the deficit with a moronic trick of collecting 10 years of taxes to pay for 5 years of Obamacare to manipulate the cbo in a 10 year window. After that it is a huge unsustainable entitlement worse than all the others. It's never going to happen. The money is gone, cuts are coming. I purposely throttled back my pay below 250k and laid off a worker. I won't kill myself if I have to pay 50% in taxes. I'm happier and the IRS is poorer.

[Anonymous]

Balance budget amendment is stupid at the federal level. Who came up with this lame brain idea? This is as stupid as the push to return to the gold standard.

The GOP racks up all the deficits then blames the Dems. Clinton left with a surplus! The GOP just fritters it away on tax breaks for the rich and bails out corporations. They are leading our nation into a facist state by giving so much to corps (tax breaks, no regulations). They care nothing for the average American. Their basic message, "f*ck you for being poor!" Yet they get their vote by stirring up the worst in people (homophobia, racism, etc.)

No one has the balls to fix our health care system because they are in bed with the healthcare industry. Whores, all of them.

When are the American people going to hire a lobbyist?

[Anonymous]

The budget surplus was a result of the GOP taking congress and ramming the contract with america down clintons throat....much like what is going on with the tea party today.

[Anonymous]

Then Clinton handed GWB a recession...with lax intelligence ...enter 911, greenspan goosed the economy with easy money to overcome the clinton recession with 911 piled on top..the bubble burst and here we are.

[Anonymous]

these charts miss the point. $14T of debt is not the problem. If we added debt at the pace of Bush's two terms it would be a modest problem that could easily be addressed with modest cuts or modest tax increases. The problem is the FUTURE debt, which is mostly the result of Medicare.

[Anonymous]

the mack penny plan is really fascinating. If we freeze spending at todays Obama stratospheric levels and just reduce spending 1% a year over the next 8 years we balance the budget. That....my friends is very reasonable. If we don't have the will to do that, we deserve a catastrophe. In the private sector many have taken 50-60% reductions in income along with falling home prices as well as a stock market still below 2007 levels. This plan is modest.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Obama has continued both wars. Obama expanded Afghanistan. Obama started a 3rd war in Libya. Obama kept Guantanamo open. The Democrats extended and endorsed the Bush tax cuts with majorities in house, senate and the Presidency validating that the tax cuts are good for the economy. Obama added Obamacare. GOP would be happy to return to the exact dollar amount spent in 2008. Democrats would freak out, END OF STORY. Charts leave all this out. Just go back to 2008 spending. Deficits are the democrats problem, pass the balanced budget so we can undo Bush's spending LOL.

While you are correct about all of this, you seem not to realize that Obamacare actually lowers the deficit. So, if we were playing the old Sesame Street game, that one wouldn't belong.

Obamacare does not reduce the deficit. Read the footnotes.