Bet you won't hear this from Freedom works and their henchmen the tea party...
http://www.examiner.com/article/damn...on-republicansThe results of an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released late yesterday demonstrate that the Bush era tax cuts, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan account for virtually the entire federal budget deficit projected through 2019.
The analysis cites Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson's retrospective in an article last week, which asked, "why did the federal government amass large deficits between 2002 and 2011, rather than the large surpluses that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected in early 2001."
In part, Samuelson that the 2001 and 2007-2009 economic downturns were found to be more significant than any single legislative change that policymakers enacted, citing an analysis of CBO data that ascribed nearly a quarter of the budget deficit over that period to the 2001 and 2003 Bush era tax cuts and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Finding with Samuelson that the mounting debt had also raised interest costs on the debt, the CBPP analysis also attributed much of their projection on those interest costs. Additionally, other tax reductions enacted by the Bush administration, including the annual adjustments of the Alternative Minimum Tax that could otherwise have affected millions of higher middle income bracket households.
Projecting policy stasis into the near future, the CBPP found that the combined effect of the tax cuts, wars, and revenue shortfalls attributable to the economic downturn will account for the entire deficit through 2019, attributing nearly half of the debt to the wars and tax cuts alone.
Recommending once again that policymakers let the tax cuts expire, "the upper-income tax cuts now and the middle-income tax cuts when the economy has recovered more fully," or pay for any of the middle income tax cuts that the Republicans propose be made permanent.
To remain clearly non-partisan, this perspective on the cause of the mounting debt, which ties it to Bush era policy, the revenue shortfall associated with the economic downturn, and rising interest on the debt necessarily had to leave the hard analysis of the consequent political realities to those of us who are not concerned with perceptions of bias. Ignorance alone cannot explain the Republican congressional leadership's refusal to acknowledge the economic realities of their ongoing assault on low and middle income households, and newly confirmed lack of fiscal responsibility.
Only two scenarios could explain their apparent betrayal of their obligation to serve the general good of the nation. They either truly are in service to the corporations and their wealthy benefactors, or they have boxed themselves into a policy from which they cannot retreat without loosing credibility entirely. Admission of past policy mistakes that cannot be differentiated from their current policy pursuits would necessarily amount to a confession of their unsuitability for office. But moreover, it would completely discredit the very foundation of conservative ideology.
A big no from most of us...
Tax cuts + no spending cuts + two wars + unfunded Medicare Part D = budget disaster. It blows my mind that Republicans accuse Obama of being a big spender after their guy did all that. Most of the deficit problems under Obama stem from low revenues due to an annihilated economy. Years of outsourcing and deregulation tend to do that. Bush doesn't get all the blame here though, as Reagan and Clinton played a role in the long decline of the US as well.
Yep, another leftist group is expected to come up with such conclusions.
So do you think that the Democratic Party is extreme left wing as a whole?
And the Grover Norquist school of Economic theory says that whatever happens, we cannot raise taxes on anyone at any time for any reason. Combine this with another neo-con foreign policy council advising Romney to involve the US in any number of wars in the Middle to Far East and thumbing our nose at China, who holds most of our debt, and what do you have?
A choice between Obama and Bush again.
Some of don't believe that EITHER of those choices are palatable.
More like a choice between Bush again and Bush again again.
Or borne-again Bush
That works too. You could also go the Naked Gun sequel route with W, W 2 1/2 and W 33 1/3.
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