The Economist magazine, one of the few fair-minded and intelligently-written periodicals left, has a fascinating if highly disturbing article about the general fiscal situation of the United States. To summarize quickly, the budget situation was already horrible when President Obama took office, thanks to the irresponsible fiscal behavior of the Bush administration. But with the stimulus package and potential massive spending on healthcare reform, the situation is now getting even worse.
The Republican Party is already trying to attack President Obama on the issue of the budget deficit and the national debt. So far, their attacks aren't really working, because the voters know that it was the Republicans who got them into this mess in the first place (the last time the budget was balanced, educated Americans recall, was on Bill Clinton's watch).
But if the Republicans have no credibility, the American people certainly do, because it's their money being spent. And 21st Century Jeffersonians should be alarmed at the mortgaging of the futures of their great-grandchildren by irresponsible men and women in Congress.
In any case, read the article, then forward it on to all your family and friends.
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4 comments:
"getting even worse" is a rather mild way to describe "quadruple" - don't you think?
While the massive increase in the deficit under Obama is obvious, it must also be pointed out that a very large portion of this is due to his (quite correct) practice of including the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the potential cost of natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes) in the annual budget, which the Bush Administration simply left out in an effort to make the deficit look smaller than it actually was.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the TOTAL deficit for 2008 Bush's last year in office) was $459 Billion. The projected TOTAL deficit for 2009 (Obama's first year in office) is $1,825 Billion - approximately 4X the record deficit from Bush's last year. What am I missing?
Saying one party is worse than the other is no formula for solving the problem. The talk radio people on the right and the bloggers on the left are very skilled at making people angry at the opposing party, but we should be angry at both of them.
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