Who Is To Blame For These Deficits? Numbers Don't Lie

D. L. Holyman, a former local banker and semi-infrequent attendee of coffee at the Cafe, made an appearance recently and was furiously ranting and raving..  D. L. is normally about as cool as banker's get, which is near ice cold, but on this day he was just plain fed up, "I am so tired of hearing about the 'Bush Recession' and what this joke in the White House inherited.  I am equally tired of hearing uninformed and forgetful Republicans surrender by agreeing that Bush went crazy with his spending in his last years in the White House.  It is time to look at the facts.  They follow:

1.  Bill Clinton ran deficits from 1993 until 1994 with a Democratic Congress that averaged $225B.  The Gingrich revolution began in 1995 and deficits decreased from $164B to $22B over the next three years.
2.  Clinton/Gingrich then actually had surpluses of $69B, $125B, and $236kB in the next three years as Gingrich held the Dems feet to the fire and Clinton governed to his newly found middle which even included Welfare Reform.  The economy prospered over these years from the Internet and Wall Street Bubble.
3.  Bush entered office in the year 2001 as the Internet Bubble was popping and the deficit went from a $236B surplus in '00 to a $127B deficit in '01, Bush's first year.
4.  Bush enjoyed a Republican Congress until 2007 when Pelosi and Reid took over.  The deficit in 2007 was $162B.  Not bad at all compared to things going on today.
5.  The deficit grew rapidly with the Democratic Congress and Bush to $455B in 2008.
6.  Obama joined up with his Democratic Congress in 2009, and with this one party rule, the deficit exploded to $1,400B.  That is $1.4 TRILLION for those of you at the Drug Store and over a 200% increase.
7.  Deficits with Obama/Pelosi/Reid are projected to exceed $1,400B again this year with no reductions in sight, and Obamacare starting to kick in next year.

"While Presidents can veto spending, the budgets are created and controlled in Congress.  Democratic Congressional leaders have their finger prints all over our out of control spending since 2008 as they destroyed the disciplined spending practices of the Gingrich Revolution.  While I think Bush did not veto enough spending in his last two years, my personal guess is he made a deal with the Demonic Democrats that he would allow some domestic spending increases if they would approve his Iraq War and Home Land Security budgets.  However, there is no doubt that our EXPLOSION in 2009 is clearly the fault of Obama/Pelosi/Reid.  I defy anyone to study these deficit facts and argue otherwise."

Billy Roy Mitchum responded, "Seems like Newt gave us a surplus, Pelosi is bringing bankruptcy, and the Teleprompter says 'BLAME BUSH AND AMERICAN CAPITALISTS' while using the 'CRISIS' to spread our money around to his cronies  Seems like folks need to study the facts and decide what they want, and they have between now and November to do it.  Heck, we would be better off with a congress of drunken sailors on shore leave."

Think about it,

Jim