This statement encapsulates one of the central political problems of our time. Whatever you think of John Kerry (I pretty much think of him as a snobbier form of Al Gore -- but still an idiot) he didn't lose the election to GWB by all that much. It was close. So the Media making blanket statements about the centrality of a single political idea -- like Deficits Don't Matter -- is both wrong & dangerous. A whole lotta Americans, including Conservatives, thought runnaway spending & deficits were a problem.
Correct.
If you study the Congressional bills and votes, you’d find the obvious to be true: liberal Democrats voted for more spending. They did it when they were in a minority and they are doing it now as a majority. The result is plain. Spending under the Democrat-led Congress is going up by DOUBLE DIGITS.
Bush beat Kerry because Kerry came off as too weak and liberal to fight to win the GWOT. The economy was doing okay in 2004 so it wasnt a big issue, but nobody was voting for Kerry based on fiscal responsibility, as it would be absurd based on Kerry’s votes; Kerry never voted for less spending to close deficits. Contrawise, Bush got very little political gain from his going along with extra spending.
This blame-Bush-for-deficits are very liberal-friendly memes that are retreads of what Democrats have been saying all along. Throughout 2000-2008 the Democrats called for more and more spending, while at the same time blaming Bush for the deficits that such over-spending created. They got away with such hypocrisy and double-talk because they were unburdened with power in 2002-2006, and shared power in 2007-2008, and the media would never call them on their hypocrisy.
Fact is this: Bush and the Democrats TOGETHER share the blame for the over-spending of 2000-2008. Democrats held both houses of Congress for 2 of those years and another house for another 2 years; they plus the RINOs held fiscal conservatives to a minority throughout.
Now the Democrats own the WHOLE BALL OF WAX. Well, Democrats, show us what your made of - show us how to stop having deficits ... Oh wait, Obama have a ‘fiscal responsibility summit’ THE SAME WEEK that he signed the $800 billion in deficit-spending faux stimulus.
This was just one month after Obama signed the Democrat SCHIP expansion that tripled the spending on that program and added a tax on smokers to boot.
Oh, and then 2 weeks later he signs the $430 billion over-spending bill from the Democrat COngress that Pelosi and Reid didnt send to Bush, because it was a full $40 billion higher (ie 10% too much spending) than Bush would agree to. So they waited for big-spending Obama to sign it.
The Democrats - owning the whole ball of wax - have managed to sign up for more deficit spending in the next 8 years than what we’ve had in 200 years of prior American history.
That’s why I ask in my tagline: Why is Obama trying to bankrupt America with $16 trillion in spending over the next 4 years?