How many years did we have huge deficits before Republicans took over Congress and the economy boomed?
But then on September 11, 2001, something happened that changed the budget outlook. After years of the military being cut after the cold war ended and the wall came down, we were suddenly faced with a choice. President Bush could either lead and go after the terrorist with our military or go to the UN and demand they do something. That choice was easy for this President -- no organization is going to be asked to defend this Country! That meant huge amounts of money had to be appropriated to repair the damage done by Clinton.
Our military and CIA were both gutted during the Clinton years. Any money added on by Armed Services was fought tooth and nail by Bill Clinton. When President Bush took office our military morale, weapons, and personnel were at a very low ebb.
A lot of the deficit is due to the fact that we had to increase the budgets of Defense, CIA, FBI, Justice Department, and the new Homeland Security in order to fight the terrorists on their turf not on ours.
At the same time the economy that was going south in Clinton's last year, took a real nose dive after 9/11 which added further to the deficit. Without tax cuts, the economy still would not be rebounding. You have to put money back in people's pockets so they will spend the money to buy more goods which improves the economy. All you had to do was watch the rebound in buying when the child credit checks were sent out to taxpayers.
The funding increase for Education was a drop in the bucket to the upgrades that are necessary in DoD. It is obvious that you have absolutely no Defense Department experience or you would know how bad the situtation in DoD had become under Clinton and how much money it has taken to get us back to where we could fight a war in Iraq.
Next time you talk about deficits at least have the courtesy to acknowledge there have been extenuating circumstances and a lot of the problem goes back to Clinton for gutting our National Security agencies that have had to be rebuilt!
I will agree there are many items that need attention. But, there has been an awful lot spending not related to this see the pill bill. We are spending money we do not have on things we do nt absolutely need.
Sorry, but so little of our growth in spending and our new spending is 9-11 related. Bush's domestic average annual increase is something like 8 or 9 percent, against Lyndon Johnson's 4.3 percent.
It's these damned education/grant proposals, medicare "reform," and others programs Bush has created.
From this week's Brainwash:
With his State of the Union Address, President Bush has once again demonstrated a foolish willingness to indulge the culture of entitlement. He can’t veto the pork-laden spending bill currently before the Senate, but he positively promises to veto any attempt to undo his massive new prescription drug entitlement. He promises new funds for drug testing, job training, and half a dozen other initiatives, and sets a ridiculously low standard for the budget: “We will cut the deficit in half over the next five years.” (“Vote Bush: Only a quarter-trillion dollar deficit by 2008!”)
Is it any wonder that NBC News Wall Street Journal poll from last month shows Republicans have lost their advantage with voters on the issue of controlling spending?
...President Bush...responds to Democrats’ provocations with concessions and new wasteful social programs that they could have hardly dreamed up themselves: Now we’re buying people’s drugs for them, making payments on their houses, subsidizing teachers’ unions with massive education spending, and we may soon pay college tuition for illegal aliens, and send Social Security checks to Mexico as well.
Ronald Reagan had a hostile Congress, and even he did better to keep spending down than this president.
Last Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reported that, on average, Bush has increased domestic discretionary spending by 8.2 percent annually, putting Lyndon Johnson’s 4.3 percent average to shame. Remember, this isn’t war-on-terror spending—it’s “let’s-buy-votes” spending.