Bush Deficits are NOT caused by the war - debunk this!

[SoCalDemocrat]

Bush and his POLICIES are responsible for the DEFICIT.

Do not allow the right to so easily dismiss our financial state on the war. Neither can we blame it on the recession. The "recession" lasted less than a year during 2001 (on Bush's watch). The Vietnam war cost as much or more, and we didn't run up huge deficits paying for that.

Mr. Bush blamed this year's estimated $450 billion deficit on factors beyond his control.
"The deficit was caused by a recession, which we inherited and did something about. The deficit was caused because we spent more money on fighting a war. And the American people expect a president to do what is necessary to win a war," Mr. Bush said.


The recession began and ended during 2001. Bush didn't "inherit" anything. Nixon prosecuted the end of the Vietnam war without running up huge deficits. The Gulf War also cost us very little per capita, thanks in part to UN participation in paying for it.

I checked and the per-capita cost of Vietnam was almost $1700 per person in the U.S. For comparison, the Gulf War was only $235 per person. Interestingly, the current deficit Bush is running is over $1600 per capita.

http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm

Conflict Cost in $ Billions Per Capita
Current 1990s (in $1990)
The Revolution (1775-1783) .10 1.2 $ 342.86
War of 1812 (1812-1815) .09 0.7 92.11
Mexican War (1846-1848) .07 1.1 52.13
Civil War (1861-1865): Union 3.20 27.3 1,041.98
: Confederate 2.00 17.1 2,111.11
: Combined 5.20 44.4 1,294.46
Spanish American War (1898) .40 6.3 84.45
World War I (1917-1918) 26.00 196.5 1,911.47
World War II (1941-1945) 288.00 2,091.3 15,655.17
Korea (1950-1953) 54.00 263.9 1,739.62
Vietnam (1964-1972) 111.00 346.7 1,692.04
Gulf War (1990-1991) 61.00 61.1 235.00

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Bush and his POLICIES are responsible for the DEFICIT.

James Carville was on Matthews yesterday... he stated that the domestic spending is off the charts.... and that it is responsible in large part for where we are now.... let's see Inshammity or Oleilly spin this... I'd like to see them try....




I just spoke to Elvis at the 711..... ask "me" anything.

[SoCalDemocrat]

2. link

Do you have a link to a transcript? We need to do a better job on this issue. Most americans buy the Bush spin about why we need to run defecits to protect us from terrorists.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. That particular transcript isn't up yet.... however, you may find this

a tad interesting.....

http://blog.johnkerry.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1417
>>The issues are these:

1.) The brazen and compulsive deception of this administration is manifest in literally every aspect of Bush’s extremist agenda—an agenda so aberrant, extreme, and contrary to our historic common values that the only way it can succeed is through stealth, bullying, bribery and deception.

2.) Bush’s incompetent stewardship of our economy and foreign policy has squandered our nation’s might, our credibility, and our prestige while adding nothing to our essential security. Furthermore, in regards to domestic policy, the strategy of “starving the beast” nothing more than a gross distortion of our national priorities Ponzi scheme— a scam to redistribute our national wealth upwards that will leave us unable to meet the basic needs of our people much less to aspire to greatness.

3.) The corrosive effects crony capitalism has had on the American worker, their families and communities, has resulted in the greatest stratification since the age of the robber barons. Further, this gaming of the system--aided and abetted by the administration—and has actually undermined genuine entrepreneurship and makes a mockery of sound business practices.<<

[SoCalDemocrat]

7. I'm hoping for facts

That's interesting but largely rhetoric. I'm hoping we can mount an attack against this Bush position based on facts. We should be able to document that the deficit is not in fact attributed to the war in Iraq, but to failed Bush policies.

No one even questions this excuse in the media. Bush just says "hey, it's not my fault!" and they buy it.

[cheshire]

3. Has he lost all that weight? And when is his next concert?

[seabeyond]

4. never in history world wide, taxes cut during a time of war

now since not a single nation ever cut taxes during war...........what made bush think it was a good idea. he had a pretty good example not to do it. a bug huge ole DUH

[Bad Thoughts]

6. Tax Cuts cause loss of revenue

Take a look at this:

The tax cuts have cost about $620 billion over the last four years, including the cost of additional interest payments on the national debt.The cost of the tax cuts has ramped up substantially over time. In 2004 alone, the tax cuts add $290 billion to the deficit, constituting a substantial majority of the projected deficit of $445 billion.

Among the budgetary factors over which policymakers have control (i.e., legislation that policymakers enact into law, as contrasted with changes in the economy), the tax cuts constitute the single largest cause of the shift from surpluses to deficits. The tax cuts are more expensive than all spending increases combined — including new spending for homeland security, the war in Iraq, operations in Afghanistan, expanded anti-terrorism efforts, and all domestic spending increases. The Administration’s own data show that tax cuts account for 57 percent of the budget deterioration over the 2001–2004 period that was caused by the enactment of legislation.