Debt Increased $54.1 Billion While Congress Fought Over Cutting $38.5 Billion
Before anyone celebrates, or bemoans, the spending cuts in last night’s budget deal, here’s a little perspective:
The federal debt increased $54.1 billion in the eight days preceding the deal made by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) to cut $38.5 billion in federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which runs through September.
The debt was $14.2101 trillion on March 30, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and $14.2642 on April 7.
That comes out to a net loss of about $15,600,000,000.
Comrade Obama can’t blame that on GW.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, they had no choice but to accept a weak budget deal. Regardless of how things played out, if there was a shutdown they were going to get the blame. If the point you raised, Doug, was being shared daily by the media, I think the public would have been much more demanding of greater spending cuts.
Wow dense are we Souther Hoosier? You forget that the reason the deficit is always increasing is because of our ongoing funding of military soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars started by Bush. Sorry to burst your lack of logic.
You mean Comrade Obama stop funding the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya?
The Bloomberg news is not exactly some right wing rag.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/the-true-cost-of-the-bank-bailout/3309/
Bush spent about $574 billion on the war on the war in seven years. Obama has spent $289 billion during the 2 years he as been in office. And another $12.8 trillion in bailouts and stimulates in two years.
Now I may be a little dense as you say, but $12.8 trillion is a hell of a lot more than a mere $574 billion GW spent on the war.
So reducing the scale of the current war effort is like a casual thing? It is easily done?
No politician sacrifices himself – and I don’t think they should. Give Obama certainty that reducing the scale of the war effort will be rewarded and he will do it. He is in the Oval Office because he wants the world to look more like he wants it to: so when he looks at a situation he doesn’t just do what is right – he has to consider his future. Otherwise, he will spend too much political capital, and while he will get things done in the short term he won’t in the long term.
So if you can make Obama think he can safely reduce troop levels and war spending, he will. But right now, any downtick in military spending will write a lot of “Obama makes the US look weak-ass and less capable of defending itself, just like those girly-men in the US wants!” slogans. Obama can’t read your mind Southern Hoosier. Your actions speak louder than your words, and a Republican 4 Life doesn’t exactly have much to offer him. You are a lost cause.
You have me confused with someone else who is blaming the budget crisis on defense spending.
Want to cut spending? Elect more Republicans.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/usa-budget-cuts-idUSN0429071020110405
Oh really? That didn’t work out too well when more Republicans were elected to Congress and the GOP had the White House…
Even when the GOP was spending like drunken sailors, that was no match for what Comrade Obama and the Democrats are doing now.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/the-true-cost-of-the-bank-bailout/3309/
“Even when the GOP was spending like drunken sailors, that was no match for what Comrade Obama and the Democrats are doing now.”
Thank your lucky star for the bailouts and the stimulus.
“A Republican budget plan due to be unveiled on Tuesday would cut $5.8 trillion from U.S. spending over the next 10 years”
Um, Ryan’s budget is about as credible as a Qaddafi speech. His assumptions are beyond wishful and it is filled with dubious calculations.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3458
“Even some critics of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan have praised his “courage” and his willingness to make “hard choices” to address looming deficits. But, upon closer inspection, Chairman Ryan’s widely reported claim that his plan produces $1.6 trillion in deficit reduction proves illusory. In fact, the numbers in his plan show that his budget produces just $155 billion in real deficit reduction over ten years”
Modern-day republicans suck so much. I think it fascinating that people who genuinely want to do good and care for the best interests of the country still manage to stand for ideas and policies that are as harmful to the US as any terrorist attack.
Your right, without them we would have 8% unemployment instead of the 9% and a huge national debt we have now. I think we need to spend another $12.8 trillion to push the employment rate even higher. If only we spend enough money we will get out of debt.
I did like Qaddafi’s Obama my son speech. I remember an old Klingon saying from Star Trek, “Only fools fight in a burning house.” We have elected a bunch of fools that are fighting while our nation goes under. I know the Republicans don’t have all the answers, but I known damn well the Democrats don’t have them either. Things are going to have to get a lot worse before the people say enough is enough. Right now the people aren’t willing to accept the Draconian changes that need to be made,
By next week our debt will have increased by another $54.1 billion as Congress continues to kick the can down the road and avoids tough, but necessary choices.
Southern Hoosier — Nobody cares about the debt and the deficit. If they did, they wouldn’t have insisted on keeping taxes on the wealthy at historic lows. This nonsense about the impending debt crisis is nothing but a tool to wipe out the social safety net, just as it was in the 90s.
Remember just ten years ago the same Republican wise men were screaming that we couldn’t keep balancing budgets the way Clinton had, because if we paid down our national debt the world would end, and thus we needed to piss it all away on the Bush tax cuts. (Thank you, Alan Greenspan.)
Some fairly smart people have fallen for this hype and are now carrying water for the Paul Ryans of the world. A lot of stupid people have picked it up and started screaming about it, too. But they never seem to notice that the ones who are telling them to be terrified of deficits are the same ones who keep cutting taxes on themselves and their supporters.
Right because it isn’t bad enough yet. What about the Kennedy tax cut?
Read more: John F. Kennedy on taxes http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39517#ixzz1JA9s5zUv
Southern Hoosier — Well, you’ve got me there. A Democrat lowered taxes. Tell you what, since you seem to agree with JFK, I’d be thrilled if we lowered taxes just like he did. Let us take the top marginal rate — we’ll have to change the brackets for inflation of course, maybe set it at ten million for this — and set it at the same place he did.
Because he lowered taxes on the wealthy all the way down to 70%.
And I think that was probably the right thing to do at the time.
So let’s get that 70% bracket up and running again. Isn’t it good to know that liberals and conservatives can agree?
Wow. Guys both sides spend like crazy. Want positive change? Let government fail….demand it…and face the fact that when your debt begins to exceed your GDP the only option is stopping ALL funding for ALL federal programs.