Perspective On The Budget

There is a lot of non sense being spread around on the U.S. Expenditures and the resulting U.S. debt. The reality is the following:

During Bill Clinton's last year in office, 2000, the U.S. Government spent $3.3 trillion and the national debt was $5.8 trillion.

During George W. Bush's first year in office, 2001, the U.S. Government spent $3.4 trillion. Then after 9/11, late in 2001, expenditures rose sharply. By 2007, the U.S. Government spent $4.5 trillion. Then Bush decided to interfere with the free market system and in 2008, the Wall Street bailout drove U.S. expenditures up to $5 trillion and the U.S. debt was $10 trillion, a $4 trillion increase from the last year of Clinton.

In his first year in office, 2009, Barack Obama skyrocketed U.S. government expenditures to $6.2 trillion, a $1.2 trillion increase. They rose again in 2009 to $6.7 trillion. This was at a time when tax revenues had collapsed due to the economy and we had less money to spend.

In two short years Obama is closing in on increasing our national debt as much as Bush increased it in 8 years. It was below $10 trillion at the end of Bush's last term, having increased $4 trillion under Bush, and is now over $14 trillion with the astronomical increases in expenditures that have occurred under Obama. We are racing towards bankruptcy.

Yet the American people, according to Republican leadership, will not tolerate any serious reduction in spending. The Republicans are proposing that we use 2010 as a baseline and start nibbling at the budget. Their pitiful cuts of $61 billion leave us spending that includes $1.5 trillion in deficits this year. That is nearly three times the highest deficit ever under Bush, which both Democrats and fiscal conservative Republicans denounced at the time.

If anyone was serious about avoiding national bankruptcy, we would at a minimum, go back to the budget of 2009. To do that would require $500 billion in reductions to the national expenditures. That is less than half the increase since Obama took office and is merely going back one year! ONE YEAR! Republicans are only proposing about 1/10th of that reasonable proposal. Does that sound serious to you?

Though democrats railed at the "stupidity" of deficits half as big under Bush as they are spending, they have been outraged at the suggestion they are worse than Bush. Public employee unions are rioting at the suggestion that their outrageous salaries, benefits and pensions should dare be cut by any amount.

Does America have the will to avoid the looming national bankruptcy? It does not appear we do.