Republican Wants Budget Deficits to be a Crime Against the Nation

A U.S. House Member from Alabama wants a president who doesn't balance the budget to be able to be impeached by the House and possibly removed from office.

I'm sure this very smart and very fiscally conservative tea bagging Republican knows full well that such a law would have caused Ronald Reagan to be impeached by a Democratically-controlled House and removed from office by a Democratically-controlled Senate.  But of course we all know Reagan ran huge budget deficits and never once balanced the budget because he loved America.  

If, however, running a budget deficit is impeachable, how bad must it be to take the largest surplus in the history of the nation and turn it into a huge hundred billion deficit in a matter of months after taking office like George W. Bush did.  If that's not cause for immediate removal, once the Democrats took over the legislative branch in January 2007, they would have impeached Bush and removed him from office by Spring.  Would have Rep. Mo Brooks supported that?  Not a chance.

But we all have to remember, Reagan and Bush tripled the federal doubt and then doubled it again only because of their Patriotic Reverence for the nation and now that a Democrat is in charge budget deficits are so evil and so detrimental to the nation that the president must be charged with crimes against the nation.  This should be in effect until a Republican takes back the White House.

Bill Bennett Plays Imaginary Fiscal Conservative

As always, we are forced to take the tough-talking, fiscal stewards of the Republican Party very seriously.  After all, they pride themselves as the last bit of fiscal sanity in an age of out of control spending that has caused huge amounts of debt to pile up.  Except that spending and the deficit have actually shrunk and leveled off, they would be right.

Very Serious Fiscal Conservative Bill Bennett writes:

If $16 trillion of national debt and the huge deficits each year aren't spending problems, then what is? The United States most certainly has a spending problem. For the president to insist otherwise is dumbfounding but at the same time entirely consistent with his policies.

Eeeewwww Bennett is so tough.  He is such a fiscally responsible person that he surely must know the "huge deficits" he claims to be so concerned about were created by George W. Bush and the GOP.  Barack Obama has shrunk the budget deficit from Bush's all-time high.  As for the debt, no president could have inherited a $1.4 trillion budget deficit and kept debt from piling up.  No one.  If Bush and Bennett's Republican Party had not left President Obama the worst financial situation in history, maybe Bennett would have something to complain about.  But the facts are Obama did not create the debt problem, the deficit problem, the unemployment problem, the GDP problem, or the spending problem.  He inherited all of it from Bush and since Obama has taken office, every single category has gotten better.

But enough of my rant.  Let's see just how fiscally responsible Bennett truly is.  In order to do that, we must look at raw spending data.  So, again, the trusty little graph we've used over and over again shows us just how fiscally insane Bill Bennett really is.

Clearly, as anyone with eyes can see, when spending was increasing at the most rapid rates since WWII, Bill Bennett never complained, never warned about fiscal doom, never did anything.  Over $1 TRILLION of new spending was added to the budget in 7 years and Bill Bennett was silent.  What would cause Bennett to justify such huge spikes in spending then but now be sooooo concerned about spending when it has slowed at the lowest rates in 60 years?

Easy answer actually.  Bill Bennett doesn't care about spending.  He doesn't care about deficits or the debt.  Bush doubled the federal debt and Reagan tripled it and Bennett never said a word.  But Obama inherits over $1 trillion of debt every year and Bennett is stroking out pretending he actually cares.

This is modern Republicanism.  They love spending.  They love debt and care not one bit about deficits.  They just don't want Democrats doing the spending.  Bush increases spending, crashes the economy, issues 8 tax payer funded bailouts and Republicans loved it.  As you can see from the chart, they couldn't get enough of it.  Not until a Democrat takes the White House does spending level off.  And it is with this leveling off that Republicans like Bennett first call it a crisis.  It's truly insane.

However, more must be said of CNN for letting Bennett pretend to be fiscally responsible and trash the president.  In order to be remotely considered "fair" the whole country is forced to accept people who believe the Earth is flat as Very Serious People.  We're all doomed as long as the media doesn't give a rip.

When Adding Over $1 Trillion of New Spending Wasn't a Problem

Shortly after being reelected Speaker of the House, John Boehner told his chamber that an anchor of debt was destroying America.

The American Dream is in peril so long as its namesake is weighed down by this anchor of debt.  Break its hold, and we begin to set our economy free.  Jobs will come home.  Confidence will come back. 

Sure debt isn't anything to brag about.  But how did we get our debt?  When Republicans took full reign of power in 2001, there was a huge budget surplus with a federal debt of just over $5 trillion.  When George W. Bush left office, he had created a $1.4 trillion deficit and more than doubled the nation's debt to $11.3 trillion.  And during that time, John Boehner and his caucus never said one single word.  In fact all they did was pass unfunded bill after unfunded bill never once worrying about what it would do for future policy makers.  And certainly John Boehner and his fiscal fraud caucus never said one word about an anchor of debt imperiling the nation.  Want proof?

As you can see, there is a huge uptick in government spending right up until 2009. Those are the George Bush years.  The years when spending huge amounts of money, while cutting revenue, waging two unfunded wars and raising not one single penny to pay for anything was considered Super Patriotic.  Tough Guys governed us then.  They called themselves Fiscal Conservatives and any dissent against their Super Patriotic Spending was considered treasonous.  They spent like drunken sailors.  And they are the same people telling us today that spending is out of control and an anchor of debt is destroying our FREEDOM.

But now, now that spending has actually leveled off and shrunk as in the case last year, it's a huge problem that is all Obama's fault.  Except there's one problem with that.  It was the Republicans led by George Bush that added over $1 trillion of new spending in 7 years time.  Barack Obama did not set baseline spending at $3.5 trillion.  The GOP did.

Since Barack Obama has been president, spending as increased by 1.4% the slowest spending increase in 50 years.  Now that Republicans are no longer in power they once again get to pretend to be fiscal hawks that want to set this country Free. Free of the debt and fiscal disorder they created but don't want anyone to actually stop and think how we got in this shape in the first place.

*Update:

BP indirectly makes a good point in the comments section.  John Boehner once again weeps like a little sissy girl after being sworn in as Speaker.  This wouldn't be such a big deal if he wasn't leader of the political party that prides itself as being the epitome of gun toting manly men that want to bomb every country with a name they can't spell.  So here ya go all you tough-talking super macho endless war loving Republicans.  This is the guy you have to go to if you want something...he's your MAN...

hahahahahahhahahahahahha

Lessons Congress Has Learned From the Fiscal Cliff

Quickies- Delay Edition

Sorry for the delay in writing.  Had to take some time off to travel.  And then I took pretty much all of today off to get caught up on everything I should have been doing while I was traveling.  It's good to see I have plenty to still write about.

• John Boner released his rebuttal to the president's debt reduction plan.  The full report can be read here.

• Boehner calls for $800 billion in new revenue, mainly through closing loopholes.  

• He also calls for raising the Medicare age to 67.  As you'll recall, I'm not against raising Medicare's age requirement.

• Boehner's plan also keeps the Bush Tax Cuts in place.

Deficits Forever, It's the Bush Way

Here are some of the projections from our nation's supposed leading think tank's solutions to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff and put us on a path of deficit reduction.

Notice something?  Deficits as far as the eye can see.  Not even the right wing Heritage Foundation has the U.S. in the black twenty-five years from now.  This has to be disheartening.

Also, there's something else you should notice.  The dark grey is the worst possible solution and the worst possible path that we could go down.  It is our current path. The path of the continuation of the Bush Economic Policy.  It's the same sorry path we've been on since March of 2001-- the same path Obama has failed to turn away from.  But there is something that could happen after the New Year.  We could embark upon a totally different policy, a policy that allows for the Bush Tax Cuts, the Bush Spending and the Bush Path to expire.  That path is the light grey shaded area.  It's nothing to brag about, of course.  But it's way better than the path set by George W. Bush and the fiscal conservatives.

Amnesiacs are real

My buddy Steve Benen touched on something yesterday that I've been wanting to write about for at least a week now.

Benen calls the people who intentionally refuse to remember the true state of the country in 2009 "amnesiacs."  He's referring to the Republican talking heads, the Fox News noise machine and the hate radio of the right.  These are the people screaming out marching orders to the rank and file GOP voters trying to convince them things really weren't that bad in 2009.  My contention is, they've done a decent job.

Here's an excerpt of an email I got last week from a close Republican friend.

"Chris....you can't really be that naive.  W. inherited a recession too and he handled it well never blaming Clinton.  This pointing back to blame the other guy isn't what a leader does.  Yes there was a crash but by the time Barry took office it was almost over and things were not that bad.  But just think.  If Obama is re-elected just think of the mess he'll inherit!"  

You can only imagine my response.  My friend and author of the quote above is not a Republican operative.  She's not even involved in party politics at all.  She's a mere GOP voter and proud of it.   She starts her day off with Fox & Friends in the morning; has talk radio on all day and finishes at night with Hannity or O'Reilly.  And she's thoroughly convinced things are either no better now, or are worse.  She's bought into the "amnesiacs."  She lives in a total alternate universe.

In the midst of replies back and forth supplying her with much data showing things are better now, I asked numerous times for her to tell me what is "worse."  Or what is the mess she is talking about.  Her response:  "the debt.  Chris, you know the debt is worse now than ever before.  Your boy has spent more money than all presidents combined.  He's rationed off our children's future with his spending binge..."  Blah, blah blah.

The only thing not better is the debt.  Very true.  It's all they have to focus on.  But there was no way to stop the mountain of debt that was coming no matter who was president. They know this.  They just find it very opportune.  The truth, however, is still very frustrating to them.  President Obama inherited the largest budget deficit ever.  He didn't create it.  And that's where the mountains of debt Republicans now claim to care about come from.  Yet the greater truth about the deficits is that they are smaller now than when Obama took office.

Listen, the whole thing might not be a walk in the park but the country is in way better shape now than what George Bush and the Republicans left it in.  The only people who believe otherwise are a brainwashed group living in a alternate universe.

Same Old Tune, Fiddle and Guitar

Remember when Republicans told us the Bush tax cuts would pay for themselves by creating such awesome economic growth?

• "You Cut Taxes And The Tax Revenues Increase."  George W. Bush, 2006.

• "The deficit would have been bigger without" tax cuts.  George W. Bush, 2002.

• 'The entire package the president does believe will lead to growth, which will over time grow the economy, create additional revenues for the federal government, and pay for itself.' Ari Fliecsher, 2003.

• In 2001, the right wing Heritage Foundation concluded Bush's tax cuts would be so terrific, so awesome and lead to such unprecedented economic growth that it would create large streams of revenue "and the national debt would effectively be paid off by FY 2010."

Yeah it wasn't that long ago when Republicans were telling us tax cuts never needed to be offset, never had to gain any serious thought about being paid for and actually increased revenue; and would magically pay off our entire federal debt.  No joke. 

Of course none of that ever happened.  

click to enlarge

There were years of rising tax revenue as unemployment fell, but there was never, ever, not one year of unprecedented growth.  At least not growth greater than the previous decade where taxes were at Clinton rates and growth was much longer and stronger.  Also, the tax cuts never created a surplus or came anywhere near paying off the entirety of the federal debt.  The Bush tax cuts did just the opposite.  They took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history.  Some $600 billion of today's budget deficit comes from Bush's tax cuts.  No new revenue was created.  Only revenue lost.  In fact, massive deficits created a federal debt more than double the size the Heritage Foundation said Bush would wipe out by 2010.  They weren't just wrong about what would happen.  They weren't even close.  What we got was the worse economic collapse since the Great Depression.  That's called epic failure.

Why does this matter now?  Because, once again, as predicted, Republicans led by Mitt Romney are claiming tax cuts, cuts much deeper than Bush's, will create super awesome economic growth and we shouldn't worry about numbers, math or what if everything they are saying is nuts.

But let's get this straight.  Romney says he's going to cut tax rates an additional 20%, add over $2 trillion of new spending and unprecedented economic growth will magically appear that will pay for all the tax cuts contained in his budget plan for America.  We've been through this before America.  This is exactly what the Bushies promised us just a few short years ago and it failed miserably.

Moreover, there isn't one serious study out there that proves what Mitt Romney is trying to sell.  Fox News isn't even buying his crap when he talks about having 6 studies backing him.  That should tell us all something.

Most importantly, allowing the very same people who were so blatantly wrong then to speak candidly now like they've been right all along is a disservice to the whole country; and frankly asinine.

The Debt: How We Got Here

You may be asking yourself, after reading the post below, precisely how it all happened.  YOU'RE IN LUCK!

Luckily for people who don't watch Fox News, we at The Fold Blog have drawn you a picture to better help you understand where the debt came from and how it all happened.

click to enlarge

You're welcome.

Where the debt came from? Hint: the deficits

While the Democratic Convention is raging in North Carolina, Republicans and Fox News are sure to be talking about the federal debt surpassing $16T for the first time ever.

The big question will be where did the debt come from and how did it get so big?  The simple answer is it came from annual budget deficits.  Since 1980 the American government has run a budget deficit in 29 of its 33 budgets.  Those deficits (all 29 of them) are added to the federal debt where the government merely pays interest payments to keep everything afloat.  Financing that debt has become a huge chunk of the budget itself.  For a visual, this is what created $16T of debt.

That's a whole lot of unbalanced budgets.  As you can see, the budget deficits are finally starting to shrink.  So why the huge surge in the latter years of the chart?  As you'll recall, in 2007 the United States entered into the worst recession since the 1930s.  The recession led to millions of job losses causing tax revenue to plunge.  In addition, jobless benefits increased and spending on social programs increased to help everyday Americans cope with recession.  These benefits were merely designed to keep people from becoming destitute while the economy was in shambles.  It worked.

During the economic crash of the 1930s, there were no automatic social programs that kicked in to help Americans who lost their jobs as a result of the bad economy.  This led to a depression.  Today, thanks to lessons learned from that Depression, there were kickers in place that helped people from losing everything they owned and these programs no doubt prevented another Depression.  Though not easy, the Middle Class was greatly held intact due to the social programs.

Naturally, the result of such programs increases federal spending.  It did what it was designed to do.  More importantly, the federal safety net prevented a Depression.  But the increase in spending versus the large drop in revenue is what is causing all the rage.

The increase in federal spending is far smaller than the Depression and chaos that would have ensued absent the spending. 

Yet we're getting off track here.  The federal debt is a result of our annual deficits.  The last four years due to a huge economic recession that would have been there no matter who was in charge.  So what about the other 26 budgets with deficits?  Well, those don't matter.  20 of those 26 were from Republicans.  And we all know "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."  It's almost like we can just write off those 20 budget deficits and simply focus on the 6 that do matter.  You know the 6 handed to the Democrats from past Republican administrations.

*Update:

So as there is to be no doubt that the closing paragraph above is more than just some comic relief, one mustn't look any further than last week's Republican Convention to see, all jokes aside, Republicans really do not care about past deficits or about recent economic history.  All they want the American people to do is focus on the right now and the fact that we have really huge budget deficits causing us to accumulate really huge amounts of debt and that Obama is in charge.

During his Convention Speech, NJ Gov. Chris Christie speaking about America's finances: "For make no mistake, the problems are too big to let the American people lose - the slowest economic recovery in decades,  a spiraling out of control deficit,  an education system that's failing to compete in the world.   It doesn't matter how we got here."

Paul Ryan, the very next day at the Convention:  "The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it..."

Asking Americans to forget the past; asking Americans to forget just how we got in the economic shape we are in is exactly what the GOP hopes to accomplish.  In doing so, they successfully delete their contributions to the debt they now claim to care so much about.  Whatever we do as Americans, never remember that Reagan and George H.W. Bush ran 12 consecutive budget deficits or that George Bush turned over to his successor a $1.5T deficit-- the largest in human history-- No none of that matters.  It doesn't matter how we got here.  It doesn't matter Obama inherited the worst financial crisis since 1932.  All that matters is everything is a royal pile of shit and Democrats are in charge.  

** Late Update:

Looks like www.usgovernmentspending.com is down for the moment so the graph above isn't working.  I'll try to figure something out soon.

National Debt

The national debt topped $16 trillion this week.  Pay attention to the bond market and the Dow to see the huge implications.  Oh yeah, both are stable.  This can only mean one thing, collapse is coming!!

Road Trip

My favorite and bestest commentor (and Fold Blog contributor) Spinner made a good analogy about the state of government spending the other day.  It was so good that frequent multiple personality disorder Kristen Billy left a Bravo! in reply.  Now I admit, Spinner does a great job and his analogy on spending makes a good point.

Here is an analogy I hope makes it clear: while on your road trip to Vegas, your buddy was speeding along at 100 MPH when it was his turn to drive. Now that you are at the wheel, you are only going a few MPH faster, but get pulled over. Do you think the cop will care that it's only a bit faster than your buddy was going and is not "unprecedented" or "uncontrollable" when compared only as an increase over the previous speeds?

Yet I'm not sure I can go along with it fully.

First of all, who's the cop?  Is the GOP the cop or are the voters?  I think I'm going to assume the voters are the cop.  And the buddy sitting next to me is the GOP.

Not to take anything away from Spinner, but his analogy doesn't quite encompass what's happening.  He comes close.  He just leaves out a few quick details.  Here is a much better version of that same analogy:

My buddy GOP took over the car on a trip to Vegas while it was traveling at 50mph.  He immediately went nuts, started doing all sorts of irresponsible stuff, stuff that he claimed he was totally against a few miles back and then claimed that it all was okay because his grand daddy Ronnie proved speeds didn't matter.  He increased the speed to 100mph and after miles of erratic driving with the tank almost on empty it was, rather unfortunately, my turn to drive. Before I could even fasten my seat belt, my buddy GOP went berserk and started yelling and screaming that my speeds were way too fast, that it was uncontrollable, that I had put the car on a path of total destruction.  He lied that everything I was doing was "unprecedented" and that if I didn't stop speeding and listen to him and do everything he wanted that it all was going to blow up in a really bad way.

Then the cop pulls us over.  Of course the cop is not going to care that my buddy is nuts.  But none of this is about the cop.  It's about the person in the passenger seat all of a sudden complaining about speeding and making up lies just so he can get back in the drivers seat. Essentially, it's about him wanting to drive again.

Unlike the cop, the voters have been in the car with us the whole time.  They remember well just how we got to 100mph and how then it was all okay.  But as soon as we switched drivers, speeds became a huge concern.  The only shot my buddy GOP has at getting back in the drivers seat is to lie and pretend to the voters that it was all under control when he was driving. Never mind the speeds, he was doing it for the country as a whole, for the freedom of the open road.  It's only now that he's not driving that freedom is in doubt.  If he can convince the voters of that charade, then he gets back behind the wheel again.  It's going to take a lot of convincing, a lot of backseat voter amnesia and a lot of lying from my buddy.  But it's entirely possible.

When Did the Public Sector Get Bailed Out?

I was just reading an article about a speech Mitt Romney gave in Iowa a few weeks ago.  The speech is supposedly the epitome of how Romney intends to tie the economy around President Obama's neck.  That's all fine and dandy, trust me.  The state of the economy is fair game, no questions asked.  But here's a snippet of what Romney told the attendees:

"America counted on President Obama to rescue the economy, tame the deficit and help create jobs. Instead, he bailed out the public-sector, gave billions of dollars to the companies of his friends, and added almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined."

Bailed out the public sector?  What does that even mean?  The public sector has shrunk.  In fact the only thing growing is the private sector.  Besides, Obama's stimulus contained over $300 billion in immediate tax cuts to private citizens.  The largest contracts handed out went to private industry.  The overall public sector of the economy has done nothing but shrink under President Obama.  Saying that he bailed out the public sector is almost as bad as people actually believing that he bailed-out the public sector.

There's a lot to hammer the president on about the economy.  Saying he bailed out the public sector is one of the grossest distortions of reality ever spoken, however.

Not to mention the largest contributors to deficits that are adding to the federal debt that Mitt Romney and Republicans are now so concerned about are leftover Bush policies.  But we're not allowed to speak of that because it's all Obama's to fix.

Complain about the state of the economy by all means.  There's plenty wrong with it without having to make up lies.

It's the Spending Binge That Never Happened, Stupid

President Obama has NOT issued in a new era of unbridled spending that is causing our current trillion dollar deficits.  Plain and simple.

The deficits come from a number of different areas but none larger than the Bush Recession, the Bush Tax Cuts and the Bush Endless War Program.

In the spirit of Mitt Romney, The Fold Blog is taking a lot of credit for bringing to the national forefront the GOP lie that Obama is on a spending binge and is the cause of our current deficits.  We have endlessly refuted Republican talking points on Obama's spending since January 20, 2009.  More recently, we have engaged head on any notion that Obama is a fiscally irresponsible menace continuously growing government who needs to be stopped. You're welcome, America.

Anyone who says Obama's spending must be stopped, that it must be put under control, that it must be CUT, that it is unprecedented, that it must be reversed is lying.  They are simply playing politics and trying to pass the blame from the last administration, whom the American people overwhelmingly voted out of office, onto President Obama.

Government is Shrinking

Gasp!:

FOR the first time in 40 years, the government sector of the American economy has shrunk during the first three years of a presidential administration.

You have to be kidding right?  After all President Obama is a socialistcommienazi whose only desire is to grow government so big that he eventually is crowned emperor.  Right?  Well, yeah if you watch Fox News than yes that is your world.

However, if you are a proud member of the Reality Based Community, then you would easily realize that the size of government has actually shrunk under Obama.  But don't stop there. Not only has government shrunk, so has spending, taxes and the budget deficit.

A Fact Republicans Will Never Admit, Will Never Acknowledge and Will Go Out of Their Way to Cover Up

Taxes, federal spending, and the budget deficit are all lower today than when Barack Obama took office.

Yes, that's right.  Obama has shrunk spending, cut taxes and lowered the deficit.  This goes against the Republican narrative, however.  It's something they will deny until the day the world explodes.  They have spent the better part of three years creating a fantasy world where Obama created the fiscal mess we are in today and that what he inherited from George Bush was nothing that couldn't be fixed within a week of taking office.

*Update:

As a comparison, let's see what George W. Bush, the greatest president ever, who was a staunch fiscal conservative, did in 3 years time.

Sources are all from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1950_2015USp_G0f

Oh no way.  This can't be true.  George Bush and the Republicans increased federal spending, cut taxes and took a budget surplus to a deficit 4% of GDP?????

Yep.  That's their legacy.  The guy who has actually shrunk spending, cut taxes and lowered the budget deficit is the Big Government, Tax and Spend Liberal trying to bankrupt the nation. The people that created this mess are never to be spoken of again, unless we refer to them as Very Serious People who are Staunch Deficit Hawks that need to be listened to very carefully.

When It Comes To Debt, Punish the Hostages

This goes right along with an ongoing conversation we've been having here on The Fold, and one I assume will play large in the election- debts and deficits.

The argument seems to have a few different strands. One is Republicans deny any responsibility for today's massive budget deficits and think everything was fine until 2009 (i.e., inheritance is meaningless). Or they acknowledge some guilt in driving up the deficit but think it all should be fixed by now and would be if Obama would quit with his massive spending binges and start CUTTING. Their third route is a combination of the two but with a slightly more optic edge that thinks we can somehow cut taxes even more for the wealthy, then cut spending on social programs and raise spending on defense by another trillion dollars and come out with a balanced budget.

The facts of the matter are simple.  The budget mess we have currently didn't happen over night.  It is a result of almost a full decade of misplaced fiscal responsibility.  It's also a result of a near full decade of chronic budget deficits brought about by tax cuts that were not offset, very expensive policies that were not paid for and a massive economic downturn not seen since the 1930s.  That's a lethal combination for any economy.  It is what happened, however.  And pretending like we can get out of this in a short period of time is crazy.

I really do love TPM's graphs!!

But certainly what we don't need right now is finger pointing.  Because if we do that we see the people who are crying the loudest right now about spending and debt are the very ones who share the biggest burden of blame for the situation in the first place.  No sense in doing that. It's better we don't blame the hostage takers.  Makes more sense to punish the hostages.

As Long As We Don't Put Any Thought Into It, the GOP is Right

Never mind that an overwhelming majority of the federal debt comes from Reagan and the two Bush presidents.  Never mind that the two presidents who increased spending more than anyone since WWII are Reagan and George W. Bush.  Never mind that Congress raised the debt ceiling for them a combined 37 times.  Never mind that it was George W. Bush that turned over to President Obama a near $1.5 trillion deficit, two ongoing wars, an economy losing almost a million jobs a month, a Dow in complete and utter free fall, who never once while in power passed a single bill that was paid for.  Never mind any of that.  Because now that it has been 3 years and 4 months since Republicans were in power, it all should be fixed by now.

Yes He Spent Like a Drunken Sailor

Bush sympathizer writes:

"Yes, if you're arguing that Bush spent money like a drunken sailor, then we should cut it back."

The truth is Bush added over $1.3 trillion of new spending to the federal budget.  There's no denying it.  He did it.  How anyone can call that a fiscally conservative led government is smoking crack.  Or how anyone can say that's not spending like a drunken sailor is quite maddening.

But Bush didn't just add over one-trillion of new spending.  He slashed federal revenue too. That means he doubled spending and cut income.  It doesn't take too smart of a person to figure out that's a recipe for disaster.

The point to all this isn't spending versus deficits.  It's that now all of a sudden Republicans claim they are against spending.  They call it socialism and Big Government takeovers.  Not one time, however, when Bush was busy creating the largest deficits in history with his trillion dollar extravaganzas, did Republicans ever feel the need to cut spending.  But now it's their favorite thing to call for.  In fact, spending is such a threat to the nation that Obama must CUT it immediately or we face annihilation.  Mentioning how spending got to where it is today, or how the deficits came about, is treason.  What matters is Obama must CUT, CUT and CUT some more.

It would take a mad people to believe Republicans have any care in the world when it comes to fiscal responsibility.  Listening to them would be like Jeffrey Dahmer saying we need to immediately do something about all the serial killers.

*Update:

Romney's New Spending Doubles Bush's

So how Serious are Republicans about spending cuts.  So Serious that CNN Money reports Mitt Romney's budget blueprint for America will add an additional $2.1 trillion of new spending over 10 years.  Yes that's right.  The guy Kristen Billy is giddy to vote for will double Bush's spending spree.  But isn't Billy telling us we need to CUT, CUT, CUT?  Sure he is. That's because Democrats are in charge now.  As soon as they're out, deficits won't matter again and spending will be Patriotic.

Bush only added $1.3 trillion over 8 years.  And just like Bush, Romney's plan has no mechanism to raise any money to pay for the new spending.  But don't worry, we'll be Free and Tough after we cut revenues even further and spend like there's no tomorrow.

Romney is the Republican in the race so he's naturally the fiscal conservative who will finally rein in the budget, slash deficits and shrink government, and he claims that's exactly what his budget does.  Anyone who disagrees with their assertions are terrorist hippies that want to destroy the Union.

Until it's time for Romney to add $2 trillion of new spending to the budget, we must CUT, CUT, CUT.

Reckoning Sure Is a Bitch

I love this stuff.  Absolutely love it.

Kristen Billy, who has returned as predicted by the love letter he wrote to us, has, once again, tried as hard as he can to invoke his Republican Fantasy World argument to shield his favorite president from any blame for crashing the country into a ditch.

The trillion dollar deficit in '09 was due to the Great Recession, not Bush's tax cuts or wars. Today's deficit is a function of Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc.

And you thinly the next year's deficit has nothing to do with the previous year? Disagree - it influences the next year but the people in charge have the ability to change fiscal policy to improve the shortfall

As if the deficit wasn't already huge and as if Bush hadn't already ran 7 previous budget deficits prior to 2009.  But in Kristen's world, a world where Iraq had something to do with 9/11, none of that matters.

Here's the thing.  The deficit, no matter the amount, is from George Bush.  He created it.  He inherited the largest surplus in American history.  And what did he do with it?  He turned it into the larges deficit in American history.  And during that time, not one word from Kristen Billy or any other Republican for Bush's recklessness.  Billy didn't care at all.  He loved it.  He cheered it on.  They all did.  Just this week Sen. Rubio called Bush "fantastic."  They do not acknowledge the fact that George Bush created a $1.5 trillion budget deficit and that he is responsible for $7 trillion of the federal debt.  They pretend it never happened.

Kristen Billy chillin' for the ladies

Billy can't stop there, however.  He tries to say the '09 deficit was due to the recession and nothing to do with Bush.  What about the 2010 and 2011 and 2012 deficits?  Oh no, those are Obama's so the economic crisis had nothing to do with that.  That's pure and complete fantasy.

It's true the economic crisis depleted government revenue because of the massive job losses. And as we all know, unemployment is still above 8%, which drastically reduces current revenue thus it's a continuing scourge on the budget.  But not according to Billy.  He specifically says it's "Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc."  Total lie.  He's a chronic liar brainwashed by Fox News.

George Bush increased spending by 108%.  In real dollars he increased spending by $1.3 trillion.  Barack Obama has merely increased spending by $600 billion, largely due to an increase in unemployment benefits.

As you can see from the chart above, spending is actually starting to decline under Obama. Since none of this is Fox News data, Kristen Billy will disregard it as he always does.  The importance of bringing this to the front page doesn't change, however.  This highlights the lengths Republicans go to disregard reality and factual information.  And the lengths they will go to protect their make-believe world.  They prefer to make up total lies just so they can sleep at night.

For further proof that there hasn't been a huge spending increase from Obama, take a look at this graph and post I brought up a few weeks ago.  It completely sums up everything Billy The Retard is trying to say right now.

Translation:  There is no spending binge from Obama that is to blame for the budget deficit.

Billy can't comprehend this, however.  It's the opposite of what he hears on Fox News, so it sends his body into shock.  And doing so proves me almost prophetic.

Here's what I wrote in March:

In their world the recession that began almost two years before Obama took office had nothing to do with the drop in tax revenue.  Also, two inherited on-going endless wars completely unpaid for had nothing to do with our budget mess either.  Neither did the completely unfunded $700 billion Republican expansion of Medicare.  And don't dare blame TARP on anyone but Obama either.  No they believe it was huge spending increases and ginormous growth in government that began with President Obama that is responsible for today's mess.

That's exactly what Billy is trying to do!!!  That's exactly what he just wrote in his comment.

Despite the fact that there is no spending splurge from Obama, any suggestion otherwise is a total lie. Despite the fact of the condition of the economy Bush handed over to Obama.  And despite the fact that Obama has actually cut defense spending, Billy denies it all.  He denies reality and insists-- just like all good God-fearing Republicans do-- that "[t]oday's deficit is a function of Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc."  Except for the fact that there is no truth to that, Kristen is right.

Just wait and see, such lies just like Billy is saying here will be the Republican meme throughout this campaign.  The deficits are from Obama's spending; Bush had nothing to do with Obama's runaway spending binge; Republicans are fiscal conservatives will be the battle hymn throughout the year.  It will be one big circle jerk where Republicans just like Kristen Billy bump their peter heads and pretend the guy they voted for twice shrunk government, cut spending and reined in the deficit.  Because, after all, that's what Republicans really believe they do.