You may have recently turned on a cable news network and saw a Republican somewhere complaining about the deficit.
“This budget provides a startling figure that should stop us all in our tracks,” or so goes the talking point from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. House minority leader John Boehner made a similar point, stating that the budget is “filled with more reckless spending and more unsustainable debt.”
The problem for Republicans is that they have no record of financial responsibility to stand on, and no reasonable solutions for going forward.
President George W. Bush fought two wars at the same time when he was cutting taxes. He paid for the wars by borrowing money, and he never even included the cost of war in his budget. He also passed Medicare Part D, which cost the Federal Government nearly $50 billion in 2008. Once again, he failed to propose any method of paying for this new entitlement. It was simply added to the debt, which he expected would be paid for by some combination of action, freedom, and boldness. So far, it hasn’t happened.
We are in the middle of the worst recession since World War II. Bush inherited a $128 billion budget surplus from President Clinton and passed on a $482 billion deficit to President Barack Obama.
With Bush gone, Republicans would certainly return to their core values of fiscal conservatism and small government, though, right? They must be chomping at the bit to cut all kinds of spending programs, shouldn’t they? Not quite.
Last year, Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the purchasing of Cold War relic F-22 Raptors over Republican objections. Each plane costs $142 million. The U.S. Air Force already possesses 145, and no other country has any aircraft that could compete with the fighter. Seems like a great place to save some cash. Republicans wanted the plane to stay in production, however, because ending the program would cost jobs in their states. While it is commendable that Republicans have discovered a populist concern for workers, is this not the kind of “hard choice” that they demand Obama make?
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 25 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Hey, genius, President Bush didnt pass Medicare Part D. In our system of government the President doesnt pass laws. Go back to basic government class before you write a column about politics. You know about as much about the subject as the average Obama voter, which is to say not much.
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True Alum, but Congress was controlled by the Republicans at the time Medicare Part D was passed.
I agree with most of what is being said in this article, but the writing lacks proper analysis and structure. In the future, I hope the CT looks for regular columnists who actually have experience writing opinion articles.
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As I recall, the Democratic party was somewhat upset about this not because they opposed the expansion of Medicare, but primarily because it was something they had wanted to pass themselves. The fact that it has ballooned into an untenably expensive program (as have medicare and social security in general) has proven to be a boon to the Dems since they can use it as a talking point - but it's not like it wasn't something they didn't want to do.
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"figure out how to maintain a cheaper military unless we want to experience what is happening in Greece."
Yes, maintaining a world-class military is exacty why the Greek economy is going down the toilet.
Idiot.
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You took that completely out of context. Regardless of how the Greek economy got to where it is we're going to be there soon if we don't start paying down our debt.
Idiot.
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I agree we'll be in trouble if we don't start paying down the debt. The Spender in Chief, however, has no intention of doing any such thing, and this columnist is essentially saying, "So what - the big bad Republicans spent money, too." Bad behavior doesn't justify continued bad behavior.
Idiot.
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Why did you feel the need to call someone an idiot? Personal attacks and name calling aren't productive and they are one of the reasons that this message board has come under scrutiny.
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Why did you feel the need to be a self-righteous prick on the internet? The columnist was clearly hyperbolating about the cause and extent of the US's deficit problem in relation to the Greek problem.
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As is evident from a brief glance at our current deficit - approximately 12,500,000,000,000 - the problem does not reside with one party or the other. This is a universal problem. In the early 80's the debt was around 1 trillion dollars and has increased to over 12 trillion in approximately 25 years. There have been Republican and Democratic presidents during that time period, of which only one reduced the budget deficit, and therefore the national debt (Bill Clinton is the only president in the past 35 years to pay down the national debt).
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Thanks in no small part to the coincidence of being in charge during an 8-year period when the NASDAQ saw a more than 5-fold increase. Not saying Clinton was a bad budgeter, but he got lucky with the amount of tax revenue coming from a booming internet industry. Sort of an uneven playing field. Though maybe I'm being too harsh, since his policies may have directly led to the market run-up; his VP Al Gore invented the internet, after all.
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Yes, but Republicans sell themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility.
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I would argue that both parties bill themselves as fiscally responsible. Fiscal responsibility is different than fiscal conservatism. It simply means balancing your expenditures with your revenue. The issue is not with responsibility; it is with what the government should and should not do. Core Republican principles, which, granted, have been thrown to the wind in recent years, are to spend less and thus require less revenue. Democrats tend toward achieving a balanced by including more funding for social programs, which requires spending more and generating more revenue.
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"...Cold War relic F-22 Raptors..."
There is nothing 'relic' or Cold War about the F-22.
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Mike,
The next time you have a thought... just let it go.
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And the "smarter and more honest" party you look towards is, I presume, the Democratic party? The same Democratic party which has taken, by my recollection, three separate votes raising the debt ceiling for the current year's budget deficit in the last year? The truth of the matter is, the Federal Government actually collects far more money than it actually is entitled to spend Constitutionally. I don't see anywhere in the Constitution which permits, say, foreign aid to be granted from the public treasury. Or "social safety net" programs like medicare and social security to be operated. Or entities like the Department of Education to operate. Quite honestly, it isn't the parties involved so much as it is the irresponsibility of the populace to recognize that their government is operating well outside the boundaries the Founders originally created for it. Politics has become a career rather than an opportunity for public service - and a gullible and ill-informed public has gone right along with it all the way. Changes to the nature of budgeting and governance will only come when the public takes a greater interest in the means by which it is governed.
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