Not to belabor a moot point, but how in the hell can Democrats sleep at night after all their pissing and moaning about the Bush deficits during the last election cycle? Conveniently reported on Good Friday while the markets were closed, we learn that those years of Bush deficits can now be referred to as “the good old days of fiscal restraint.”
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Treasury Department said Friday that the budget deficit increased by $192.3 billion in March, and is near $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year, as costs of the financial bailout and recession mount.
Last month’s deficit, a record for March, was significantly higher than the $150 billion that economists expected.
The deficit already totals $956.8 billion for the first six months of the budget year, also a record for that period. The Obama administration projects the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.75 trillion.That March figure turned out to be 28% higher than what economists predicted. Applied to the Obama administration projections that variance will equal a $2.25 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009. An amount equal to or greater than the sum of the Bush deficits from 2001-2008 in a single year.
The Washington Post was kind enough to provide a picture worth a thousand words:
Even the Obama administration’s optimistic projections outstrip the biggest deficits under Bush. Bush inherited a recession – just like Obama. Bush raised discretionary spending too much – no conservative can argue to the contrary. Bush had to pay for two wars – costs that win or lose Obama will see incrementally decline. Therefore, we are encouraged to believe the fault for doubling our $11 trillion National Debt over the next decade lies with Bush.
Plausible? Obama’s first budget (discounting the $150 billion Iraq/Afghanistan war tabs previously off-budget but still accounted for in the deficit…) is $650 billion higher than Bush’s 2009 budget. Despite “inheriting” a recession/record debt and despite signing a $900 billion “stimulus” bill, Obama has upped the ante with $650 billion in additional discretionary spending. I’m sure in Obama’s never-worked-in-the-private-sector pointy head that can be blamed on Bush; I recommend he wake up and smell what he’s shoveling.
Who believes this administration will spend less in the next six months? Anyone believe tax receipts are going to rise dramatically? Having rung up $956 billion in deficit spending in the first half of 2009, I have no doubt the total for fiscal 2009 will be well in excess of $2 trillion. It’s well documented this administration won’t let a crisis go to waste – and who knows what natural or man-made disaster the next six months holds? Could we see a $2.5 trillion deficit? I wouldn’t bet against it.
Ten years to double the National Debt? I give him six. Obama won’t stop digging and the Democratic Congress may be even greedier than him. There is a laundry list of items still to be debated – nationalized health care, kickbacks to the teacher’s unions expanded education spending, card check legislation – that will further expand spending or impede our ability to compete in the global market. That’s ignoring (as Washington will continue to do) our unfunded $100 trillion liability for Social Security and Medicare.
Not gloomy enough for you? Every additional trillion added to the debt requires $25 billion in interest at today’s rates. That percentage will have to go up in the future to tighten the money supply and combat inflation. We’ll soon be spending $1 trillion a year just to service our debt.
See? I told you Bush’s spendthrift ways were the good old days.
