Originally posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
First, a civics lesson. Congress has more control over spending than the President. Congress, meaning the House, passes a budget, and the President signs it, which makes it law. So, blaming Bush for the massive over spending which took place from January 2007 until now is intellectually dishonest. An easy point to make, since I am willing to bet that we would be hard pressed to find many people who hold politician’s integrity in high regard, whoever screams about the budget at any particular point in time is more often than not a function of who holds power. The Republicans were evil money spenders from 2007 until the election of 2008, even though Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had more to do with reckless spending than did President Bush. During the time period from 2009 through the midterm elections of 2010, the Republicans were called radical alarmists for noticing that a monstrous new entitlement program would cause ruinous increases in Federal Spending permanently. Even as San Fran Nan stood on her soap box and announced pay go to be the new law of the land, a brand new untouchable governmental spending mandate was her actual priority. Her, “gift,” to the American People included bills we would not be able to pay the interest on, let alone have any positive movement on the principal. Budget graphs which show how budgets work during Presidential Administrations are incomplete. A more complete picture breaks down the budget both by President and by who controls congress. It is also important to note, that congress is also supposed to draw up the budget prior to the session ending for the year. So, for instance, the 2007 budget was passed by the lame duck session of 2006.
A few notes about the above graph. President Bush never signed the budget for 2009. One was never presented to him. The House passed a series of temporary resolutions to keep government going until President Obama was sworn in, so that they could lay the $1.85 Trillion bomb on us. This did not include TARP, which was part of the 2008 deficit. It did include the, “stimulus,’ spending, which was wildly successful, as the unemployment rate clearly shows. The Republicans controlled the budget process in 2002,03.04,05,06,and for 07. While it is true that these years appear to be an increase over Clinton’s last years in office, there are some serious caveats which we will discuss later. The deficits are also on a continual downward trend during that time. The explosion which occurred once the Democrats took over the process is astounding. What’s more, during the last 2 years, the Republicans have not had the ability to even voice a counter argument. The Democrats actually locked the Republicans out of the room for any discussions of consequence regarding anything. I don’t mean that in a figurative sense, but in a very real and physical sense. So quite literally, the Democrats own this budget and debt crisis, all on their own. It was comical to watch them during the last two months before the midterms practically begging for bi-partisan support for their idiotic and destructive policy initiatives solely so that blame could be shared.
Today, I read that President Obama is distressed over the budget that he inherited from President Bush. I shot coffee through my nose. So let me get this straight, Senator Obama voted for the budgets of 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. He never once during that time voted for less government spending, signs his first budget in 2009, one he actually voted for, and then as President agreed to vastly increase that deficit. (Notice the 2009 deficit is 4 times the previous years shortfall.) Projections going forward both from his Administration and the vaunted CBO which show that nothing comes even close to being deficit neutral, especially compared with anything in the past. Today, he is worried that we are spending too much. Where I find humor though is in who he blames, and how he is able to get there.
I have often criticized President Bush. His compassionate conservatism was nothing more than Rinoism on Steroids. Strong on Social Conservative issues, (those issues held dear for some on the right which were always least important to me personally,) strong on national defense, and largely a Democrat on economic issues, (those issues which have always been more important to me than the socon issues.) George Bush let Ted Kennedy write entirely the, “No Child Left Behind,” law, passed a new Medicare entitlement authored by Al Gore called Plan D. A lesson to other Republicans, George Bush was hated even more by the political left for passing their pieces of legislation than he was before he did it. But for all his faults, I believe that George W. Bush did an admirable job as President during a very difficult time in our Nation’s history. I also believe that he spent money like a 90 year old grandmother when compared to the current keepers of the purse strings. Perhaps the new direction of austerity for President Obama is a campaign issue he is trying to get ahead of for 2012. He has yet to stop campaigning, and everything he does is Kabuki Theater anyhow. Perhaps President Obama finally did his math homework from the 7th grade and learned how to balance a checkbook and realized that the American People are justified in their anger. Perhaps President Obama has heard from his Chinese friends who are not happy in the least at the debt monetizing which is effectively robbing them of a veritable s—load of money. ( The Chinese actually laughed in the face of Timothy Geitner during a negotiation to have them invest heavier in the U.S. during Obama’s Administration.) In the end analysis it does not really matter to me. Obama’s new found frugal roots are a mirage. He will say no more deficit spending, and if he ever gets control of congress again, he will spend it silly. This time for real, the American People can ill afford a Democrat President and a Democrat Congress at the same time. It has proved disastrous beyond anything which could have been imagined.
About the budget surplus of Bill Clinton’s term as President. I have heard this in every argument with a liberal, it is supposed to be the ultimate argument ender. For the liberals among you, it isn’t. Here is the refutation. First off, for most of Clinton’s Presidency, he had a Republican Congress to contend with. Next, Bill Clinton’s Fed sold 20 and 30 year debt for the first time since the last Democrat President. The new debt, was not included in the 10 year budget figures people discuss when talking about the budget deficit. Also, the equity markets went on a huge run during the last 5 years of the millenium. This produced a bonanza of capital gains, and therefore cap gains taxes during Clinton’s last 5 years. This was merely a matter of luck, and not anything Clinton did. When Bush took over as President, the cap gains turned quickly into losses, and therefore lost revenue. Since the CBO, and the Whitehouse had already included estimates for the cap gains to continue at the same pace for their budget estimates, this cost the Bush deficit double in impact. In short, the Clinton Budget Surplus was always baloney. Like everything else the Democrats say, inherently dishonest.
One more note of interest. One piece of our history which is often overlooked is Alexander Hamilton’s turn as Secretary of the Treasury. His decision to continue to pay off British bond holders of American Debt during the war of 1812 made us the economic power we are today. The rest of the world took note. American debt was considered from that time to be the safest investment which could be made. We continued to pay our enemy what we owed them even while we were at war with them. We continued that practice through every war since. This made our currency the standard for the entire globe. Today, we are in danger of losing that status. The foreign debt ratings services are considering lowering our credit ratings. They apparently, are capable of basic mathematics. Chris Christie, John Engler, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Eric Cantor, and any of the other fiscal conservative are right. We can no longer afford to keep the entitlements off of the table when discussing the budget. We need to stop spending the money period. We are out of time and choices.
Tags: Budget Crisis
