Conservatives at the time spoke up loudly telling them to stop, to become fiscally responsible and voters taught them a lesson by handing majorities of both the House and Senate to Democrats.
That clear enough? Conservatives did speak up, so for folks to claim that when Republicans controlled the house, conservatives didn't complain about spending but because it is now Democrats and Barack Obama spending like drunken sailors, they are doing so... are simply full of crap.
On to the news reports for today where I see a few that tie in together.
First off, via Washington Post, we see that Obama's own debt commission is calling our current budgetary trends a "cancer" that will destroy the country from within.
They name specific government run programs that is eating away at our country:
The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said.
"We can't grow our way out of this," Bowles said. "We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can't tax our way out. . . . The reality is we've got to do exactly what you all do every day as governors. We've got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that."
Cut spending to stop the debt from getting any bigger... DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Ya think?
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid... now we add another trillion plus to our debt with Obamacare which the Democratically controlled White House, House of Representatives and Senate passed, over the objections of the majority of Americans, who still poll at 60 percent for wanting it repealed.
Federal deficit out of control
Bloomberg, February 2010 reports:
President Barack Obama proposes a $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 budget today that calls for $100 billion in additional stimulus spending and projects this year’s deficit will hit a record $1.6 trillion.June 8, 2010, Reuters headline blares "U.S debt to rise to $19.6 trillion by 2015," sub header explaining:
June 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015, according to a Treasury Department report to Congress.
Spend, spend, spend and spend some more, the Democrats answer to everything, is taking that "cancer" as Obama's debt commissioner calls it, and spreading it like wildfire.
What really gets me is the way Democrats have spent more money than we have to spend, but when November appears to loom ahead like a freight train bearing down on them, then they become "concerned" about voting for any more spending.
But this time was different: The malcontents were freshmen, many of whom have enthusiastically backed President Barack Obama’s agenda most of the way but now are choking on its cost.
Some of the first-term lawmakers said the dollar figure on a nearly $200 billion spending and tax cuts package was too big for them, even if some of the package was paid for with revenue offsets, according to senior party aides.
“I’m just at a point where I don’t want to see any more unpaid spending,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a freshman from a previously Republican district, told POLITICO the day of that meeting. He said concern about spending is “fairly common” in the 2008 group of freshman House Democrats because they are “a little more inclined to keep an ear to the ground.”
The last line of that article absolutely kills me though:
It’s a major, major victory, and it shows the Democrats can be fiscally responsible,” said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.).
OMG, are you freaking kidding me? After all the spending over the last year and a half, fearing for your very political career and deciding not to spend even more is fiscally responsible?
Is it any wonder we are seeing headlines today stating "White House: Republicans could win control of House," where White House press Secretary Robert Gibbs admits readily that Republicans might take back control of Congress?
Quick facts, via Heritage (2009):
- President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
- President Bush began a string of expensive financial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
- President Bush created a Medicare drug entitlement that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new government health care fund.
- President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation. President Obama would double it.
- President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs. President Obama has already increased this spending by 20 percent.
- President Bush tilted the income tax burden more toward upper-income taxpayers. President Obama would continue that trend.
- President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for an additional $2.6 trillion in public debt), President Obama’s budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016.
That was 2009, let us jump ahead now to 2010:
President Obama’s budget will:
* Permanently expand the federal government by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over 2007 pre-recession levels;
* Borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010;
* Leave permanent deficits that top $1 trillion in as late as 2020;
Obama’s 2011 Budget puts our country $2.5 trillion deeper in debt by 2020 than it other wise would be if current law were left unchanged.
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