Deficits: Plenty Of Blame To Go Around
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
Now, before I go on, I want readers to understand that there is plenty of stuff for which George W. Bush can be blamed.
I was harshly critical of President Bush when he was enacting all manner of giant intrusive new government programs. Programs like No Child Left Behind, the prescription drug benefit and the USA PATRIOT Act.
Honestly, where were all the conservatives back then? Those were huge expansions of government. One of them - the prescription thing - was the biggest entitlement in the history of mankind.
So was the $450 billion deficit that President Obama "inherited" all President Bush's fault.
Well, yes and no.
To be sure, President Bush was all on board with those big, expensive programs, but so was then-Senator Barack Obama.
Harking back to an eighth-grade civics class, I think everybody would have to concede the following point:
The president of the United States does not hold the purse strings. The president can make budget suggestions and he can sign or veto the budget that Congress sends him.
But it's Congress that enacts budgets. It's Congress that decides how big the surplus or deficit will be. And whatever party has the majority in Congress gets to set the tone.
The president proposes, Congress votes, and then the president either signs or vetoes.
I think we can all concede this one simple concept, right? OK, I can see liberal and conservative readers alike nodding in agreement all over Kosciusko County right now.
So let's take a look at who was in control of Congress and how things went with regard to the deficit. (The little charts show how much revenue the government took in and how much the surplus or deficit was.)
President Bush took office in 2001. For the next two years, Democrats had the majority in the Senate and Republicans had the majority in the Senate. (And remember, there was that pesky 9/11 event at the outset of FY 2002).
Surplus or
FY Rev. Deficit
2001 1.99T 128B
2002 1.85T -157B
When the 108th Congress took office in the 2003, Republicans controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2003 1.78T -377B
2004 1.88T -412B
When the 109th Congress took office in the 2005, Republicans controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2005 2.15T -318B
2006 2.40T -248B
When the 110th Congress took office in the 2007, Democrats controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2007 2.56T -160B
2008 2.52T -458B
When the 111th Congress took office in the 2009, Democrats controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2009 2.15T -1.4T
2010 2.33T -1.56T
Now, the last two years are estimates, but anyone can plainly see that the really huge deficits have happened since 2007 when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
I blame President Bush for not vetoing those spending plans. But let's be honest - it was the Democrats who were running the show and President Bush was all too compliant in going along.
Also, look at the revenue side of things during those years. After those much-maligned and vilified Bush tax cuts took effect at the end of FY 2003, revenue went up like crazy. The government actually enjoyed record revenues year over year from FY 2005 through FT 2008, despite a softening economy.
Anyone can plainly see the problem wasn't that the government didn't collect enough money. It was that they spent it all and then some - while the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
During FY 2009, the Demos pretty much did an end-run around President Bush and passed continuing resolutions to keep the government running until President Obama could take office.
Then they passed the ginormous omnibus spending bill to finish the FY 2009 budget.
But you have to remember that during this whole time, President Obama was Senator Obama. He was a member of the Congress that passed all those huge spending bills. And he was voting yea.
Really, the last deficit Democrats truly "inherited" from Republicans was the one from FY 2007, which happened to be the lowest since FY 2001. It was also the fourth straight decline in deficits since FY 2004.[[In-content Ad]]After FY 2007, Democrats - including Sen. Barack Obama - controlled the spending.
The deficits President Obama has inherited, he inherited from himself and the Democrats. And since he's taken office, he and the Democrats have expanded it by a factor of three.
Now, as I said at the outset, I was no fan of President Bush's spending proposals and I criticized him for it in this column. But President Obama makes President Bush look like a miser.
The numbers don't lie.
I understand how politics works and how one side always tries to heap all the blame on the other side.
But the Democrats trying to say they inherited all their deficit problems from President Bush is simply untrue.
President Bush certainly must shoulder his fair share of deficit blame for proposing big new programs and failing to veto Democrat spending proposals in FY 2007 through the end of his term.
But the majority of the blame for our current enormous deficit problem has to go to President Obama and the Democrats.
Now, before I go on, I want readers to understand that there is plenty of stuff for which George W. Bush can be blamed.
I was harshly critical of President Bush when he was enacting all manner of giant intrusive new government programs. Programs like No Child Left Behind, the prescription drug benefit and the USA PATRIOT Act.
Honestly, where were all the conservatives back then? Those were huge expansions of government. One of them - the prescription thing - was the biggest entitlement in the history of mankind.
So was the $450 billion deficit that President Obama "inherited" all President Bush's fault.
Well, yes and no.
To be sure, President Bush was all on board with those big, expensive programs, but so was then-Senator Barack Obama.
Harking back to an eighth-grade civics class, I think everybody would have to concede the following point:
The president of the United States does not hold the purse strings. The president can make budget suggestions and he can sign or veto the budget that Congress sends him.
But it's Congress that enacts budgets. It's Congress that decides how big the surplus or deficit will be. And whatever party has the majority in Congress gets to set the tone.
The president proposes, Congress votes, and then the president either signs or vetoes.
I think we can all concede this one simple concept, right? OK, I can see liberal and conservative readers alike nodding in agreement all over Kosciusko County right now.
So let's take a look at who was in control of Congress and how things went with regard to the deficit. (The little charts show how much revenue the government took in and how much the surplus or deficit was.)
President Bush took office in 2001. For the next two years, Democrats had the majority in the Senate and Republicans had the majority in the Senate. (And remember, there was that pesky 9/11 event at the outset of FY 2002).
Surplus or
FY Rev. Deficit
2001 1.99T 128B
2002 1.85T -157B
When the 108th Congress took office in the 2003, Republicans controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2003 1.78T -377B
2004 1.88T -412B
When the 109th Congress took office in the 2005, Republicans controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2005 2.15T -318B
2006 2.40T -248B
When the 110th Congress took office in the 2007, Democrats controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2007 2.56T -160B
2008 2.52T -458B
When the 111th Congress took office in the 2009, Democrats controlled both houses.
FY Rev. Deficit
2009 2.15T -1.4T
2010 2.33T -1.56T
Now, the last two years are estimates, but anyone can plainly see that the really huge deficits have happened since 2007 when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
I blame President Bush for not vetoing those spending plans. But let's be honest - it was the Democrats who were running the show and President Bush was all too compliant in going along.
Also, look at the revenue side of things during those years. After those much-maligned and vilified Bush tax cuts took effect at the end of FY 2003, revenue went up like crazy. The government actually enjoyed record revenues year over year from FY 2005 through FT 2008, despite a softening economy.
Anyone can plainly see the problem wasn't that the government didn't collect enough money. It was that they spent it all and then some - while the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
During FY 2009, the Demos pretty much did an end-run around President Bush and passed continuing resolutions to keep the government running until President Obama could take office.
Then they passed the ginormous omnibus spending bill to finish the FY 2009 budget.
But you have to remember that during this whole time, President Obama was Senator Obama. He was a member of the Congress that passed all those huge spending bills. And he was voting yea.
Really, the last deficit Democrats truly "inherited" from Republicans was the one from FY 2007, which happened to be the lowest since FY 2001. It was also the fourth straight decline in deficits since FY 2004.[[In-content Ad]]After FY 2007, Democrats - including Sen. Barack Obama - controlled the spending.
The deficits President Obama has inherited, he inherited from himself and the Democrats. And since he's taken office, he and the Democrats have expanded it by a factor of three.
Now, as I said at the outset, I was no fan of President Bush's spending proposals and I criticized him for it in this column. But President Obama makes President Bush look like a miser.
The numbers don't lie.
I understand how politics works and how one side always tries to heap all the blame on the other side.
But the Democrats trying to say they inherited all their deficit problems from President Bush is simply untrue.
President Bush certainly must shoulder his fair share of deficit blame for proposing big new programs and failing to veto Democrat spending proposals in FY 2007 through the end of his term.
But the majority of the blame for our current enormous deficit problem has to go to President Obama and the Democrats.
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