A Legacy of Debt

[4dsc]

When President Bush takes his last flight on Marine One next week, he will leave behind a national debt that increased by about $5 trillion on his watch. It’s by far the biggest increase under any president in U.S. history. The national debt was $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office. The latest debt numbers are more than $10.6 trillion.

In 2000, when President Bush was elected into office, the nation’s finances were looking pretty good. With the economy expanding, it was a good time to save for a rainy day. In 2002, however, Vice President Cheney told then-Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill that "deficits don't matter." Since then, lawmakers and the administration have ignored fiscal prudence. Over the last eight years, we have seen some of the largest government spending increases in our nation’s history.

So now, in addition to the $700 billion bailout and the proposed $825 billion stimulus package, we have also spent $451 billion on interest on the national debt in FY 2008. With reductions in federal revenue of about $166 billion from dwindling tax collections, and these sizable spending increases, it will take some time to get our country back on a fiscally responsible track.

Secondly, if we are going to find significant savings in the federal budget, we have to keep all options open. All pork and all programs should be on the table when it comes to bringing down the deficit. But, the focus of the debate needs to be where the biggest savings can be found, which happens to be two areas politicians are most afraid of cutting: entitlements and defense spending. While there are no short term savings to most fixes for Medicare & Social Security, we can’t fix our long term fiscal problems without addressing their financial underpinnings. And with $500 billion in annual defense spending, it will take a meat cleaver rather than a paring knife to cut it down to size.



http://www.taxpayer.net/search_by_category.php?action=view&proj_id=1777&category=Wastebasket&type=Project#

I wonder if Obama is ready to make some hard decision about the budget..

[unhappycamper]

1. The 2009 military budget is almost a trillion bucks, not the $500 bilion

in the article.

[.... callchet ....]

2. International bankruptcy

Was that the plan. Let things get so out of control and out of whack that there is only a military solution. And they overlooked the obvious, but not acceptable solution, abolish all debt.

[2Design]

3. we need to cut their entitlements FIRST - they have way more benefits and retirement pay

than any of the rest of us - don't touch the little we people will get - go after their own

[2Design]

4. cut the money to bush, cheny, rummy, rice and others who never

worked and only wrecked things - they need to pay this back and all those wall street swindlers too, halliburton, the gas companies, and blackwater