CaptainJJack

Has Obama Run Out of Maneuvering Room Already?

I will stop blaming the Bush policies when they are no longer the primary source of the problem we face.

Based on the enormous mess he left, it will be a long, long, long, long, long. long time.


On Jun 11 09:32 AM Windsun33 wrote:

> I did not vote for Bush or Obama, but eventually you will need to
> stop blaming Bush for all the current problems.

Has Obama Run Out of Maneuvering Room Already?

I find it amusing that all the new found deficit hawks come out when Obama gets elected. During the Bush years, "deficits didn't matter".

Well, here's a thought:

If you take the Bush administration final budget (including all the "supplementals", like war funding) and run it out using the same CBO assumptions, it develops TWICE the deficit of the Obama budget because of the unsustainable 2001 tax cuts.

And, it would have been great if Bush had left us with something other than a total disaster to show for it. Obama (or McCain, for that matter) can only do what is possible, and Bush saw to it that the options are all bad.

I supported Bush in the1999 and 2000 primary and the 2000 election, and I live to regret it to this day.

Why Is the U.S. Borrowing Less from Abroad?

The reason we are borrowing less is that we are BUYING less from abroad. The major portion of the borrowing was seller financing -- i.e China loaned money to us to buy their goods.

The borrowing had been going on for a long time, at relatively low levels, until the Bush tax cuts of 2001. In effect, Bush borrowed $2 trillion and gave it away as tax cuts so that the rich could buy luxury goods and the poor could go to Wal-Mart and buy stuff from China.

He also borrowed another $1 trillion for the war in Iraq.

Even if the stimulus had not passed, the "real" budget Bush left us, which included all of his off-budget military expenses, was $1.2 trillion.

All of this borrowing was not a problem (Cheney: "deficits don't matter") until Obama started doing it.