Posted on 08/04/2014 2:53:36 PM PDT by Kaslin
On July 3, 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama infamously called President George W. Bush “unpatriotic,” and his polices “irresponsible” for adding $4 Trillion to the country's "credit card." This was almost more than all other US presidents combined, he argued, and therefore was putting America on a dangerous path to fiscal insolvency. Less than six years into his own administration, however, the president has failed to reverse the untenable course set by his predecessor; and, indeed, is making America's heavy debt burden even worse. CNS News reports:
The total federal debt of the U.S. government has now increased more than $7 trillion during the slightly more than five and a half years Barack Obama has been president. That is more than the debt increased under all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined, and it is more debt than was accumulated in the first 227 years of this nation's existence--from 1776 through 2003…By the close of business on July 31, 2014, it had risen to $17,687,136,723,410.59—up $7,060,259,674,497.51 since Obama first inauguration day.
Again, this is not to say that President Obama is solely responsible for the nation’s unsustainable debt burden. As the graph below shows, federal debt first ballooned during the Bush years (although, in fairness, exploded shortly after he left office):
For what it's worth, in February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) wrote about some of the possible ramifications of a “large” and “growing federal debt”:
The large budget deficits recorded in recent years have substantially increased federal debt, and the amount of debt relative to the size of the economy is now very high by historical standards. CBO estimates that federal debt held by the public will equal 74 percent of GDP at the end of this year and 79 percent in 2024 (the end of the current 10-year projection period). Such large and growing federal debt could have serious negative consequences, including restraining economic growth in the long term, giving policymakers less flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges, and eventually increasing the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which investors would demand high interest rates to buy the government’s debt).
What also makes these astounding figures so egregious is that on the presidential campaign trail, then-Sen. Obama pledged to slice the national deficit in half at some point during his first four years in office. That obviously never came to fruition -- and, given where are federal debt burden stands today, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.
In THIS he was transparent ... we saw every step of the way.
The estimated population of the United States is 318,750,168 so each citizen's share of this debt is $55,335.58.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.34 billion per day since September 30, 2012! Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!
by percentage that is close to 40% added under Obama?
Works out to a little over $20,000 per person in the US. Does your family feel $20,000 times each family member? I have 5 in my family and that would work out to $100K ... I sure don’t feel 100K richer.
Congress is part of the problem not part of the solution.
They kept passing continuing resolutions over and over and over again. each, CR including automatic increases from “baseline” budgeting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseline_(budgeting)
Baseline budgeting is an accounting method the United States Federal Government uses to develop a budget for future years. Baseline budgeting uses current spending levels as the “baseline” for establishing future funding requirements and assumes future budgets will equal the current budget times the inflation rate times the population growth rate.[1] Twice a year—generally in January and August—CBO prepares baseline projections of federal revenues, outlays, and the surplus or deficit. Those projections are designed to show what would happen if current budgetary policies were continued as is—that is, they serve as a benchmark for assessing possible changes in policy. They are not forecasts of actual budget outcomes, since the Congress will undoubtedly enact legislation that will change revenues and outlays. Similarly, they are not intended to represent the appropriate or desirable levels of federal taxes and spending.[2]
This is worse than debt. Our debt has not increased by $7 trillion. The money supply has increased by $7 trillion which means that our purchasing power has already been stolen from us. This money will never be paid back because it is newly printed money. It was never existing money that was borrowed from anyone.
It’s called baseline budgeting.
You start with $1 trillion in spending and then submit a budget on top of that.
So long as Congress continues to authorize this, it is their responsibility, not Barack’s’s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.