PatekPhilippe
Senior Member
This is a disingenuous graph, at least as it pertains to 08 and 09. Those were budgets signed by President Bush. The stimulus program added $100 billion to the deficit in the 2009 fiscal year. That is fair criticism of the Democrats, but the inherited deficit was over $1 trillion.
There were no new major spending initiatives in 2008 or 2009. The reason why the deficit exploded was because of the cyclical adjustments caused by the recession. The biggest spending initiatives of the past decade were Medicare Part D, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican President (though in fairness supported by Congressional Democrats), and the Iraq war. The fiscal balance further deteriorated by the Bush tax cuts. Medicare Part D, war and tax cuts exacerbated the deficits that we are now in.
Going forward, it is fair to criticize the Democrats for the deficits we will incur. There should be no new spending programs that are not self-funded. In fact, we have to start cutting back our current programs, particularly Medicare and SS. But to say that the Democrats caused the budget deficit to explode in 08 and 09 is absolute bullshit. It demonstrates why you shouldn't listen to highly politically partisan people.
Answer this Toro...who proposed and put in all of the spending measures in those budgets you are citing Bush for signing...WHO?
Would you rather he acted like Obama and just NOT SUBMITTED a budget because he was afraid of the reaction from the public WITH ALL THE DAMN MONEY WE ARE BORROWING FROM THE FRICKEN CHINESE!!!?????