An Associated Press story last week claimed that the deficit is now about $40,000 for every man, woman and child in America.
If we take a look at real facts instead of Obama-bashing innuendo, President George W. Bush was left with a surplus of $127 billion when he went into office. Bush spent us into huge deficits with two non-budgeted, unpaid-for wars and overpriced no-bid contracts to companies like Halliburton and Blackwater.
Then there was the unfunded prescription drug plan, an unfunded No Child Left Behind Act, an unfunded bank bailout bill of $700 billion, all under Bush, leaving President Barack Obama on his first day in office with a deficit of $1.3 trillion. And then there was a banking system about to collapse worldwide because of a lack of checks and balances on banks and Wall Street firms.
If we take a look at what percentage of that $40,000 can be laid at the hands of Republicans under Bush, I guarantee the vast majority, if not most, would be the Republicans’ bill left to all Americans. It seems Republicans would like to forget it was their own mishandling of our budget, and now they blame everyone except themselves.
And to now add insult to injury, Republicans are again becoming the darlings of the banks and Wall Street, through their industry lobbyists and political donations, by trying to stop Obama from implementing common-sense legislation that would protect all of us from these industries and from politicians doing it to us again. It’s time to put the blame where it belongs.
"GOP talking about cutting Social Security again, when the real budget problem is health care" by Steve Kyle, America Blog
Excerpt
Two Republicans, Alan Greenspan and Hank Paulson, sat on Meet the Press this morning and told us that there is no way out of our fiscal mess that doesn't involve cutting entitlements. And first on their list is Social Security.
First, why should anyone believe what these two guys have to say? They presided over the monetary policy and the fiscal policy that got us into our current economic mess.
Second, why on earth does the supposedly he-said/she-said addicted mainstream press have only discredited Republicans to talk about economics? Aren't there no Democrats available?
Third, and most important, can we PLEASE kill the zombie-like reawakening of the we-must-cut-Social-Security-benefits meme once and for all? We last killed this lie a few years ago when Bush Jr. had a run at it, but in fact it has been around since 1933. Republicans HATE Social Security for two reasons, one stupid and one understandable (but also stupid if you actually care about retirees):
- The stupid reason: Social Security is "socialist." Well, sure it is and what of it? If people actually like it (and there is no question they do) are we really going to cut it just because it is something socialists happen to like also?
- The understandable reason: If I were a Republican, I too would hate the program that is so popular, it got Democrats elected and reelected for half a century. (Incidentally, this is also why they hate single payer health care. If we ever actually put it in place it would be so popular that the party who got credit for it would be cemented in power for the rest of our lives which would be much markedly longer, incidentally). Only people who never travel to other countries (like most Republicans) could imagine that single payer wouldn't be popular. If you doubt what I say, just look at Medicare, our current seniors-only single payer government health care system. Even the tea-baggers like it.
Bold emphasis mine
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