Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

There have been hundreds of postings here, back and forth, accusing one president or another of leading the country to the brink of financial ruin. Some have even accused our current president of being a closet socialist or even communist. Prior to that, there have been many terribly vituperative criticisms of George Bush. A good example is a recent post right here in the The Talk of the Villages Political Forum a few days ago...

"...Obama has driven spending to 24% plus of GDP from its historic level of 18-19%. I've presented REAL data...Go look at the data, find the specific cuts proposed by Obama (I'll save you time, there are none) and try to come to grips, difficult for a Dumbocrat, that this country is being destroyed by Obama and his blindly loyal followers."

So maybe its time to revisit a few facts regarding our current fiscal crisis.

First it should be noted that no President, Obama or Bush, Republican or Democrat, can be legitimately accused of "driving spending" or "destroying the country". The executive branch of our government does not enact spending bills, the House of Representatives is the only branch of government with the authority to do that. Presidents can propose budgets and veto spending bills, but other than using the bully pulpit, which carries no voting power, that's pretty much the extent of their role in government spending. For the purpose of considering the numbers below, be reminded that the Republicans controlled the House from 2000 until 2008; the Democrats from 2008-2010; the Republicans returned to control in the 2010 mid-term elections and are in control now. So for the period being discussed here, the GOP was in control of the White House for 8 years and the House of Representatives for 9 years. The Democrats controlled the House for 2 years and President Obama is in his 30th month as POTUS.

So how did we manage to almost triple our national debt since 2001? This information comes from the Associated Press and the Government Accounting Office. If anyone chooses to impeach the accuracy of these sources, maybe you ought to stop reading right now.

Here are the elements of discretionary spending that resulted in our national debt increasing from a very manageable $5.8 trillion at the end of the Clinton administration (and declining rapidly at the time) to the current level of $14.3 trillion. Understand that Medicare, Social Security, and other entitlements already amount to more than 50% of federal spending. But they are not adjustable on a discretionary basis because the legislation underlying that spending is not included in any spending legislation. The other largest overall segments of federal spending are defense at 20% and interest on our debt at about 9%. All of the rest of government spending amounts to only 18% of expenditures. But that's what all the politicians (and many posters in this forum) want to talk about. Even if ALL government spending other than entitlements and defense were eliminated, the U.S. would still have to borrow almost 20% of it's annual spending to make up for tax revenue shortfalls.

Here's the list of what got us here according to the Government Accounting Office...

• The largest contributor were the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts which resulted in $1.6 trillion in deficit spending.

• Additional interest costs on the growing amount of federal borrowing contributed $1.4 trillion.

• The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in increased deficits and debt of $1.3 trillion.

• The Economic Stimulus package which was to address the financial crisis that began in 2007 was requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary and passed at the end of his presidential term in 2008. President Obama's administration executed the stimulus program under the terms of the legislation. The Economic Stimulus package contributed $800 billion in deficit spending and increased debt.

• The 2010 tax cuts under President Obama were heavily negotiated between the political parties. They exchanged an extension of unemployment benefits demanded by the Democrats for an extension of the Bush tax cuts which were demanded by the GOP. Both parties claimed victory. This legislation has resulted in $400 billion of deficit spending and additional debt in less than two years. This legislation alone will add over a trillion dollars to the national debt in ten years.

• The 2003 addition of prescription drug benefits to Medicare has added $300 billion in deficit spending since the bill was passed.

• The 2008 financial industry bailout (TARP), passed at the end of the Bush administration, has added $200 billion in deficit spending and increased debt.

• The most difficult factor to quantify is the reduction in tax revenues that resulted from the home mortgage-fueled recession that began in 2007 and continues until now. The "best guess" by the experts is that reduced tax revenues has probably accounted for as much as $1 trillion in deficit spending and the need to borrow additonal amounts to fund the government.

So by my calculations, these factors account for more than 80% of the deficit spending and increases in our national debt that has occurred since 2000. You can figure out which Congresses and which political parties were responsible. I won't even suggest that you consider which President was responsible...because in our system of government other than his veto powers, the President has no authority over government spending.