Boehner Promises GOP Balanced Budget by 2023

I cry because that's how much I love America

Last year the Republican-controlled House passed Paul Ryan's budget plan that dramatically reformed the American government's priorities namely by turning Medicare into a useless voucher system.  That budget also cut spending by $5 trillion over ten years and lowered tax rates.  This plan would eventually create a budget surplus in 40 years and gave no details about where the $5 trillion in cuts would come from.

This plan was so great and so fiscally responsible that Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, thus adopting by proxy Ryan's budget vision for America: huge spending cuts, lower taxes, no details and a balanced budget in 40 years.  The American people didn't like this idea and easily reelected President Obama to a second term.

Having learned nothing from the election or from the national debate that almost entirely focused on the economy during the election, House Republicans have now promised the world they will provide a balanced budget by 2023.  Again, no details on how they will do it.  No mention of what programs will be cut.  And no word about Medicare or Social Security.  Just a promise and we're all supposed to smile and cheer.

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

Thoughts on the Deal

I would have much preferred raising tax rates at the original $250K like the president has been saying for over a year now rather than the one we got.  In the grand scheme of things, it makes little difference in terms of revenue.  It matters more because it's what the president said he would not budge nor compromise.  He did.

Other than that, I have no other disappointments in the Fiscal Cliff deal.  I don't see how the president's hand would have been any stronger weeks from now than it was on Tuesday.  There was no need to allow UI to expire.  Getting an extension for an entire year is a huge win for the president and not enough has been said about it.  He deserves credit and if it cost him $100 billion in revenue over 10 years then it was something he considered worth doing.

My take on all this is that Dems are just unhappy with the president moving on an item he claimed to be unmovable.  But that's what compromises are, that's what democracy is.  We just had a president that was said to be immovable on issues. He didn't compromise, it was his way or no way.  If you didn't do what his administration wanted you were with the terrorists.  He presided over the largest economic collapse in 80 years and created a $1.4 trillion deficit.  He never once had a majority approval rating his entire second term and left office the most disliked and unpopular president since Hoover.  We absolutely don't aspire to be anything like that.  I'll take Barack Obama's governing style any day.  The thing we need to do right now to help our deficit the most is to get people back to work. There are no more excuses.  People have to have jobs.

Lessons Congress Has Learned From the Fiscal Cliff

Cliff Jumping Averted, for now

When I was in college I waited until the last minute to do any of my assigned tasks.  I partied too much.  Was mostly irresponsible.  Didn't really have a care in the world.  I did just enough to get by.  The last four years, the American Congress has demonstrated to the world that college life isn't just for college students.  It's the norm for how to govern the richest, most powerful country in the world.

Over the Cliff We Go

It's hard to imagine at this point anything other than going over the self-imposed fiscal cliff.  Many Dems say go ahead.  Don't bargain with the hostage takers. Force the cliff and pass everything in smaller bills in early January or after the new Congress adjourns.  Republicans are saying no to everything other than huge spending cuts to very popular social programs.  And even then I'm not sure Boehner can deliver enough votes to pass whatever it is he says his party supports.

So we're stuck.  It could be worse.  But really none of it is necessary.  There's no reason to inflict more pain and suffering on the American economy and its people. Every Member of Congress makes over $100,000/year.  Half are millionaires. Some are billionaires.  The point, though, is none of them will feel the sting of spending cuts.  None of them will miss a paycheck (and if they did, they wouldn't even notice).  None of them will have to choose between gas and bread.  Actually, none of them even pay for gas.  They use campaign funds to pay for the gas they use.  It doesn't come from their pockets.  To be more exact, many Members make millions from very high fuel prices, and insider trading deals.  They are truly part of an elite club that is so detached from anything their constituents have to go through on a daily basis.  That's why this whole nonsense is happening.  Because it truly doesn't matter to them.

So over the cliff we may go.  And the only people who will have to pay the price are the ones not making the decisions.

GDP by President, 1981-Present

First term
Reagan 3.31
Bush 2.16
Clinton 3.34
George W. Bush 2.29
Obama 1.55

Second Term
Reagan 3.74
George W. Bush 1.03
Clinton 4.28

Avg of two terms
Reagan 3.53
Clinton 3.81
George W. Bush 1.66

Looks like since 1981, President Obama has the worst first-term growth rate of the five presidents.

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.

Easily Obtainable Data Destroys Fox News' Fantasy World

Yesterday I made my journey to the Republican Fantasy World to get a glimpse of how things are going for the people who believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11 and that George Bush was a popular president.  Let me just say I wasn't surprised in the least.

Their big story was what they believed was a huge Obama flip flop on turning the economy around.  As only Fox News could:

The president has long been making the case that he just needs more time to finish the job he started. At an August 2011 fundraiser, he said: "When I said change we can believe in, I didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow." 

The claim, though, that "we knew from the beginning" it would take more than one term is a departure from what Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer in February 2009. At the time, Obama said, "A year from now, I think people are going to see that we're starting to make some progress, but there's still going to be some pain out there. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."

So in February 2009 President Obama told Matt Lauer that if by 2010 people don't start seeing some progress being made in the economy and if for sure in three years progress hasn't been made then there will be a proposition made of a one-term president. This is proof to Fox News and Republican voters that Obama said himself he should only have one-term and deserves not one more day to continue his policies because in their world things are worse.  Actually in their world, things are the worst they have ever been and we are on the verge of economic collapse.

Economic data, however, suggests the complete opposite of what Fox News is reporting.

Since Obama made those comments to Matt Lauer in Feb. 2009:

*the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.3% to 7.9%.  That's progress.

*the Dow has increased 6,200 points or 85%.  That's the largest gain in the Dow since FDR.  That's progress.

*GDP has risen 28.2% to an all time high.  That's progress!

*corporate profits are at their highest point in history.  Dare I say PROGRESS?

*And the deficit is smaller now than when Obama took office.

Obama has turned the economy around.  It's plain as day.  There's not one single economic indicator that isn't better now than when Obama took office.  To deny this is to deny reality.  And that's exactly what Fox News is doing.  They want their viewers to believe that things are no better or are worse off than February 2009.  There's not one single ounce of truth to such a notion, however.  Anyone who breathes oxygen can easily see that Fox News has a vested interest in lying to its viewers and creating a Fantasy World for them to exist with their own set of made up facts.

The president absolutely lived up to what he told Matt Lauer in February 2009. Progress has been made.  The economy has definitely turned around.  Things are better now than in February 2009, by a long shot actually.

*Update:

I drew a picture to help those who still can't comprehend.

**Update:

To see just how bad things were in February 2009 check this Free Enterprise post out. Consumer confidence was at 37.7 it's worst measure ever at that time.  Today it's almost doubled to 72.2, its best measure in 4 years.

New home sales decreased 15% to 331,000 units.  Today new home sales are at 389,000, up 15% since February 2009.

Again, just more data proving progress has been made since Obama's Matt Lauer interview in February 2009.  It would take an idiot to suggest otherwise.  Or someone who refuses to live in reality, which would be idiotic in every sense of the word.

GDP Still Growing, Fox News Immediately Labels it a Conspiracy

Commerce Dept. says the economy grew at roughly 2% last quarter.  This can only mean one thing in the minds of Republicans: one huge conspiracy to get the president reelected.

Those of us in the reality-based community understand today's news to mean the economy has grown for 13 consecutive quarters.

My buddy Steve Benen draws us a picture:

Obama's Hope and Change is Real

A constant meme from the GOP is that President Obama is doing a terrible job.  The economy is slumping, businesses are suffering, economically things are worse off than before.  The real and accurate story is something altogether different, however.

Economically speaking, there isn't one general indicator of the economy that is worse off than before Obama took office.  It's worth repeating.  There isn't one indicator of the American economy that is in worse shape than when Obama took office.  The economy is better off plain and simple.

The Dow under President Obama has gained over 5,000 points.  The largest gain in 3 years time since FDR.

The S&P is up over 80%

Corporate profits are at an all time high.  In other words, businesses are doing just fine under Obama.

And the budget deficit is shrinking

Unemployment is down and GDP is growing more rapidly than it has in a decade.

There is no way anyone can truthfully state that the president's policies are not working and are not making things better.  George Bush would have loved to have had graphs like these after only 3 1/2 years in office.  Had he, they would have been calling him the Greatest Ever Strong Leader in American history.  Questioning his attributes to American Greatness would have landed you in the hot seat where your patriotism would have been called into question.  My how things have changed.  And yes I'll take this change any day!

*Update:

During President Bush's first term, the Dow actually lost 210 points.  Under Obama it has gained over 5,000!

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.

Gay Muslim Terrorists Have Taken Over BLS

Economy adds jobs, unemployment rate falls and Republicans say it's a conspiracy to get the president reelected.  Is there anything in their twisted world that isn't a conspiracy?

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.

Ignorance is Bliss, but Republicans really believe this stuff

If I sound like a broken record, it's probably because I am.

Condi Rice: "… we are exceptional in the clarity of our conviction that free markets and free peoples hold the key to the future, and in our willingness to act on those beliefs. Failure to do so would leave a vacuum, likely filled by those who will not champion a balance of power that favours freedom. That would be a tragedy for American interests and values and those who share them."

Must we go through this again?  Apparently so.

Sec. Rice was writing in hopes to highlight her belief that sometimes the American people need to be reminded that our country is exceptional to the rest of the world.  We savior freedom in all realms but especially in "free markets."  It is our "conviction that free markets" are so important to free society that failing to uphold such a market system would collapse our nation and freedom as we know it.

As an 8-year member of the Bush administration, Secretary Rice should know a thing or two about unfettered markets.  Or at least about how to grow government to huge lengths and nationalize them. 

The Bush administration instituted at least 8 government-funded bailouts of private industry, well over a trillion dollars worth.  He nationalized entire financial and lending industries, meaning he used tax payer money to buy up majority ownership in private companies.  He did more to interfere with the free market system than any president since FDR.  He created TARP, No Child Left Behind, Dept. of Homeland Security, and who can forget his transfer of billions of dollars of American wealth to Iraq.  If anyone failed to uphold the free market system it was the Bush administration.  How dare any Republican pretend it never happened.

Notice too that Rice says failing to hold steady to the conviction of free markets would result in a vacuum likely filled by those who don't cherish freedom.  Bush failed to abide by the GOP's dream of free markets and guess what?  We're still here and just as free as we were in 2001-2009.  Anyone who thinks, or would write in a printed publication that America is exceptional because of our unbridled love of a free market system especially after they worked for the administration that issued and created TARP is ridiculously stupid. 

You Can't Rewrite History

Kristen Billy, the world renowned financial adviser that he thinks he is, has tried to pull a couple dandies on this site.  In addition to suffering from multiple personality disorders, he's tried to argue that time stands still just to name a few; and now he's trying to rewrite history.

Trying to exempt his favorite president from any responsibility for today's economy, Kristen has tried on numerous occasions to claim the situation a president inherits is meaningless.  Of course a situation a president inherits is paramount.  When you inherit an economy that was losing 700,000 jobs a month, that lost 40% of its market value, that was waging two endless wars for almost a decade, that had an annual budget deficit of $1.5 trillion, the situation inherited is anything but meaningless.  But that's what Kristen wants.  Like all Republicans he doesn't want Bush ever mentioned again.  Unless, of course, we are talking about how Bush gets all the credit for killing bin Laden, there's no reason to bring his name up again.  It's all meaningless except for the good stuff.

Realizing that saying the situation a president inherits is meaningless borders insanity, Kristen has now tried to rewrite history and make it look like all along he was simply saying Obama should have Bush's mess cleaned up by now.

"Over three years into one's administration, what was inherited has little meaning. As Spinner writes, the spending is in your control."

There's just one thing wrong with that.  That is not at all what Kristen has been saying.  He's never mentioned anything about three years later the situation is meaningless.  He's never ever put a time-frame on it at all.  Instead he has always maintained that the situation a president inherits is meaningless.   But let's be honest here.  Obama just didn't inherit a bad situation.  He inherited the worst situation any elected president has ever inherited. 

Let's lay a couple things out here real quick.  No elected president in the history of America has ever inherited an economy in collapse with a market that had lost 40% of its value bleeding almost a million jobs a month, coupled with a budget deficit of $1.5 trillion and tripled by two ongoing endless wars.  It's never happened before.  It's the worst situation anyone elected has ever had. 

Now the real messed up part is that first Kristen tried to say that it was meaningless.  A situation like that is not meaningless.  Now he's trying to say it all should be cleaned up by now.  The worst economic situation since the Great Depression along with two endless wars and a huge budget deficit should be fixed in 3 years?  Impossible.  No one could have pulled that off.  But that's what Kristen and his GOP is trying to say.  They are trying to say what he inherited was nothing big, nothing too bad at all.  It only got worse after Obama took office.  There's lies and then there are damned lies.  There's no reason to let them get away with it.