Yes We Can! Long Island 2012| The simple fact is that conservatives say one thing and then do the exact opposite once in office. Their objective remains: Put as much money into the pockets of the very wealthy people who they hang out with and who fund their campaigns. And that’s the source of these deficits every time the Republicans are in the White House.
As the DOW drops a thousand points or so, expect the frighties to connect it to the American economy and President Obama’s economic policies. Somehow, when convenient for them, they simply forget about the economic crisis in Europe, the Euro-mess, Germany’s insistence upon austerity, and how the market is an international metric. They adopted the same position recently regarding the rising cost of gasoline only to ignore it as prices at the pump have begun to recede. I recall Dick Cheney prompting Americans that deficits don’t matter. Whatever’s convenient. After all, frighties have very short-term memories.
TPM‘s chart provides the centerpiece for the financial crisis in America–the Bush years. One need only to recall the Bush tax cuts to understand why the national deficit is where it is hovering today. As the chart reveals, the main drivers of projected deficits over the next decade are the wars of the oughts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts and the so-called “automatic stabilizers” – unemployment insurance spending, lower tax burdens – built into existing policy to combat economic downturns. Recovery measures by Bush and Obama caused a short-term spike in deficits but have mostly phased out and thus represent only modest fractions of the national debt. The numbers, which come from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, assume national policy as of a year ago would be renewed. Thus, they don’t reflect expected peace dividends from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, or revised economic growth projections, and it assumes the Bush tax cuts will be renewed in their entirety – something President Obama has vowed will not happen, after he accepted a two-year extension of all the rates late 2010. But they broadly demonstrate that existing debt and projected deficits aren’t largely a consequence of Obama initiatives. Since just after Obama’s victory, and with greater fervor since reclaiming the House, Republicans have used deficits and debt (the aggregate of accumulating deficits) as cudgels to attack spending on social programs. But their calls for fiscal responsibility mask an agenda, enshrined in a number of GOP budget measures, that’s aimed at slashing spending on programs for the poor and elderly, increasing defense spending, and cutting taxes on the rich – a platform that would dramatically alter the scope and size of government services, but reduce deficits and debt slowly. Obama’s budget proposal is projected to yield lower deficits over the next decade than the GOP alternative. After agreeing to significant cuts in domestic spending in several legislative deals last year, President Obama and Democrats have insisted that further efforts to improve the nation’s fiscal outlook include new revenues. The GOP has balked at this demand, and as a result, Congress has gridlocked and isn’t expected to resolve any significant tax and spending issues until after the November election. Click here: Source |
| Hempstead Phone Bank Into Iowa |
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.