The party that’s been blaming Democrats for the $20 trillion national debt caused largely by the failed policies of George W. Bush just passed a budget resolution that will add $1.5 trillion to the debt while cutting Medicare by $500 billion and Medicaid by $1 trillion. Their goal has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and everything to do with tax cuts for the wealthy. They’ve deceived themselves into believing tax cuts will somehow pay for themselves. They never have and they never will.
Republicans have a long history of driving debt and deficits while they’re in power and complaining about them when they’re out of power. Ronald Reagan gave huge tax cuts the rich and big corporations and created the debt crisis that dominated the late 1980s. It took a tax increase passed by Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress to get the deficit under control. The boom years that followed debunked GOP predictions that the tax hike on the wealthy would lead to economic devastation.
George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus from Clinton when he took office in 2001. He quickly reverted to deficit spending, launching two wars and creating a prescription drug program for seniors while giving a massive tax cut for the wealthy. The collapse of the economy in 2007 and 2008 under Bush drove the deficit and debt sky high because of the loss of revenue. There was nothing fiscally responsible about the Bush administration.
Even though the Bush administration policies caused debt to increase rapidly, Republicans bashed Obama for eight years for not reducing it. In fact, he reduced the deficit by two-thirds, largely through improving the economy and increasing tax revenue.
Now, Republicans are about to increase the debt despite eight years of carping. They believe that putting more money in the pockets of rich people and corporations will stimulate enough economic activity to offset the cost. It’s the same argument they used when Ronald Reagan created the modern debt crisis by increasing the debt by 186% and the one they used when George W. Bush increased it by 101%. If, as the GOP has claimed, increasing the debt is fiscally irresponsible, then they are the party of fiscal irresponsibility, not to mention hypocrisy.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Big lies told by Republican politicians include the one about the GOP being more fiscally responsible than Democrats and that they want to balance the federal budget. In fact, they run up the national debt every time they get a chance.
Richard Nixon is credited with having surpluses in his first year in office, but the tax law which created the surplus came from tax law enacted in the last year of the Johnson Administration and a 10% tax surcharge levied by the Democratic leadership to pay for the Vietnam War.
Fiscal irresponsibility is a chronic feature of Congressional budgeting, but it became acute and scary under Ronald Reagan. Reagan ran on a promise to balance the federal budget and called for an amendment to require balanced budgets as a Constitutional mandate. But he didn’t mean it. He did the opposite.
Once Reagan took office, he began deficit spending to a degree unprecedented since World War II. Why was the nation borrowing so much money under Reagan? To pay for tax cuts for the rich. Reagan’s deficit spending quintupled the national debt. The United States borrowed $ trillions so that the rich would pay lower tax rates.
President George H. W. Bush acknowledged that the borrowing was creating a fiscal crisis and was out of control. He violated his own “no new taxes” campaign pledge to stem the fiscal bleeding. His tax policy, while responsible and prudent, was despised by Republicans. When Bush ran for reelection in 1992, he ran against Bill Clinton and a funny little billionaire named Ross Perot, who was a single issue candidate. Perot self-funded own his race for president to bring attention to the deficits created by the Republicans.
President Clinton managed the federal budget better than most presidents. His policies created the first surpluses in over 20 years. The financial markets exploded. Employment soared while interest rates fell and inflation remained moderate. It was a hat-trick. In his final years, the United States was on track to repay the national debt. Then we got George W. Bush.
Clinton’s surpluses vanished after George W. Bush’s tax policies became law. Under W., the United States borrowed $5 trillion dollars to pay for a series of tax cuts for the rich and two wars in the Middle East. Republicans were openly hostile to the notion of paying for the wars in the Iraq and Afghanistan, but enthusiastic about sending Americans to the Middle East. Someone other than people who earn a lot of money should pay those bills. And other people should fight for the nation.
President Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. The nation’s financial system came within 48 hours of total collapse in the final months of 2008, W.’s presidency. Unemployment soared, credit vanished, major brokerage houses (some in business since before the Civil War) vaporized. All that spending did not create prosperity. It brought the nation and the world to the edge of an abyss.
The Obama Administration borrowed heavily in the beginning shore up a weak economy. At the end of the Obama Administration, the economy had recovered and borrowing fell to historically low levels.
Now Republicans want to return to the days of massive borrowing. Are they using the money to fight Communism or terrorism? Are they going to rebuild our infrastructure? Are they going to create new, high-paying jobs? No. They are going to borrow $ trillions to provide massive tax cuts for people who have nearly all the income in the economy. That, in a nutshell, is the what the Republican Party does. Over and over again.
Did we just read the same article?
“Even though the Bush administration policies caused debt to increase rapidly, Republicans b@shed Obama for eight years f9r not reducing it. In fact, he reduced the deficit by two thirds, largely through improving the economy and increasing tax revenue.”
If you want to question the accuracy of that, do so. But don’t act like you didn’t read it, unless your reading skills really are that abysmal.
I think he did point it out. Reagan and Bush borrowed heavily to fund a select wealthy few. Obama had to borrow in order to fund the nation and get it moving again.
Sorry, my comment was meant as a reply to D B, not as a comment on Mills’ article.
My apologies Sir. I mis-read your intent.
It is funny that you mention Reagan and Bush , but not your main men Obama. How much did the debt go up with Obama.
I think we have problem on both sides, just point it out, please.
ur a dumb a####
No, we don’t have a problem on both sides. The deficit increased temporarily under Obama while Congress passed the legislation that broke the back of the recession and started the slow climb out of that mess. During those early two years of the Obama 8 years, the debt also increased, but it decreased steadily thereafter, as did the annual deficit. Neither of these happened under Regan, nor G. W. Bush — Obama’s immediate predecessor. Bush Sr is a mixed story, but he raised taxes because of the debt crisis created by his predecessor, Ronald Reagan. This is not myth. It is fact, and readily available if you want to check further.
But do keep in mind that an annual increase the deficit is not the same as a long term increase in the debt. The current plan (well, plan is not accurate for what the House GOP just passed — it is more like a teenager’s quickly scribbled outline of his/her proposed book report)– anyway, their “plan” will increase the debt by $1.5 TRILLION. Doing that while cutting Medicare & Medicaid by exactly that amount, means they actually have a $3 Trillion debt increase unless they penalize folks like me. Personally, I think I should just move a tent to Sen. Tillis hallway with my sleeping bag since I will have a choice of housing or medical care or food if that idiocy goes through.
When it comes to destructive, runaway government spending, you’re right, the problem exists regardless of which party has the majority. Of course, you’ll find that bit of intellectual honesty missing from both sides as well.