Deficit

[RetiredGySgt]

Ok under Bush the deficit went up 5.7 trillion in 8 years. Under Obama it has already gone up 3 trillion with the same plans for budgets next year if the Dems win Congress.

Someone on the left explain to me how 5.7 in 8 years is bad but 6 trillion in 4 years is GOOD?

 

[zzzz]

Ok under Bush the deficit went up 5.7 trillion in 8 years. Under Obama it has already gone up 3 trillion with the same plans for budgets next year if the Dems win Congress.

Someone on the left explain to me how 5.7 in 8 years is bad but 6 trillion in 4 years is GOOD?

I'm not from the left, I'm an American, but it is all relative. If your a Demokraut Bush is bad, if your a Republican Bush is good and vice versa.

 

[uscitizen]

Obama was passed a losing hand when he took over. Should he have just folded?

 

[zzzz]

Obama was passed a losing hand when he took over. Should he have just folded?

No. He is doing what he thought he needed to do and what Congress let him do. It just wasn't enough or the right things. I think we need to look at all our international trade agreement, NAFTA especially and equalize the playing field with other countries. Other countries put tariffs on our products and we don't respond in kind because we don't want to offend them. We give billions of dollars in foreign aid yet that money would better spent here in this country to rebuild our own infrastructure.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Ok under Bush the deficit went up 5.7 trillion in 8 years. Under Obama it has already gone up 3 trillion with the same plans for budgets next year if the Dems win Congress.

Someone on the left explain to me how 5.7 in 8 years is bad but 6 trillion in 4 years is GOOD?

Somehow that's just racist.

 

[Toro]

Ok under Bush the deficit went up 5.7 trillion in 8 years. Under Obama it has already gone up 3 trillion with the same plans for budgets next year if the Dems win Congress.

Someone on the left explain to me how 5.7 in 8 years is bad but 6 trillion in 4 years is GOOD?

Its not good. Neither is good.

However, when Obama took office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. When Bush took office, there was a surplus. Now, like Obama, Bush inherited a recession. It wasn't Bush's fault that the economy went into a recession, just like it wasn't Obama's fault. And it wasn't Bush's fault that when the economy went into a recession, the budget went into a deficit. That's merely the fiscal balance.

The problem is that the Bush tax cuts added to the structural deficit. The tax cuts were funded with debt. That's OK during a recession, but it is bad policy when the economy is in expansion. One could argue that the Bush tax cuts only added to the debt for 10 years, since the tax cuts are scheduled to expire. However, the tax cuts added another $1.5 to $2 trillion to the debt. Obama's stimulus package adds $800 billion, which includes ~$320 billion in tax cuts. (You don't hear critics on the right saying that the tax cuts were bad.) One could argue that the stimulus was a waste - and by extension, so were the $320 billion in tax cuts within the stimulus - but the laws passed by the Obama administration added less debt than the laws passed by Bush. If the healthcare bill is not revenue neutral, then Obama can be admonished for that as well.