Republicans and conservatives have long lamented the drunken spending of Presidents such as FDR and Lyndon B. Johnson who ushered in vast new spending programs with the New Deal and the Great Society. Our larger society has generally come to associate Democrats and liberals with increased spending and higher taxes and with good reason. But while these men can certainly be criticized for their spending, we must be fair. George Bush is far worse than either.
The White House has predicted that the national debt will reach 9.6 trillion dollars by the end of Bush’s second term. In 2007 alone, the USA spent 250 billion dollars paying off interest on that debt. To put such a number in to perspective, know that we spent approximately 500 billion dollars on the Department of Defense (DoD) in 2007. Essentially then, we spent half of our DoD budget paying debt.
The White House also projects that the budget deficit will reach 400 billion dollars or more in the coming year. That means we could potentially return to the record 2004 deficit of $413 billion.
If these numbers say anything, they say that government is completely and utterly out of control. Congress spends freely and Bush does little to nothing about it. While Bush failed to veto a single Congressional spending bill while the Republicans were in power, he now vetoes spending bills as if only now Congress is out of control. The fact is that the former Republican Congress, the current Democratic one and President Bush himself spend tax payer dollars like they grow on trees.
Now Congress and Bush seem ready to pass a $150 billion tax rebate bill in order to spur economic growth when no economists of note say such a bill will truly work. Rather, Congress and Bush will spend $150 billion to create the appearance that they are trying to help the economy. While it is honorable to want to spur economic growth, Bush and Congress should have the courage of their convictions and not spend $150 billion recklessly when they largely know it will have no impact on the economy.
What makes these deficits and reckless spending bills so egregious though is not that our national leaders don’t listen to economists or understand what they’re saying but that they are knowingly passing on incredible amounts of debt to our generation- debt that no other generation in the past has had to deal with. This is debt that we are legally bound to pay back even though we didn’t have (much of) a say in spending it.
In 2007, almost ½ of American citizens reported salaries less than $30,000 and 1/3 reported salaries of less than $50,000. (Interestingly, these numbers are worse than the year 2000, when Congress actually practiced what it preached.) Although Americans are reporting less income than in the past, our national leaders continue to spend as if our incomes are increasing. Where are we supposed to get the money to pay back China and the other foreign countries that we have become indebted to?
The fact is that America is in very sad financial shape. We spend as if we have an endless stream of revenue and we are growing at less than half the rate of competitors such as China. If we continue on this dangerous road we will surely come to a point where we will no longer be recognized as the greatest nation on Earth.
This is why then it is so important that we all participate in this presidential election. On the Democratic side, we have Senators Clinton and Obama proposing incredible increases in spending (such as universal healthcare, read: socialist healthcare) and on the other side of the aisle we have people like Mitt Romney proposing nearly as ridiculous amounts of spending ($54.2 billion at last check). The one viable candidate in this race who understands the need to cut spending is John McCain.
While Bush may not be the spending hawk I’d like, God forbid a second Clinton presidency. Billary would make GW look like a penny pincher.
