Chart of the Day

Commentary By Ron Beasley

So tell me again who busted the budget.  Yes it was one George W. Bush!  It's those bills the Republicans don't want to pay.  The Bush tax cuts alone exceed the entire projected budget impact of Obama's policies and didn't contribute a single job - it's alleged purpose.  Bush's stimulus spending also exceeds Obama's.  And don't forget Bush inherited a  balanced budget and a good economy.  Obama inherited the worst economic conditions since the great depresstion and a sky rocketing deficit. 

Chart from the NYT via Outside the Beltway

Comments

[buermann]

Well, it's easy not to add much spending when you inherit such a high baseline from your predecessor. The DoD baseline has remained somewhere around Bush's peak, with the additional wartime spending shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan to no clear purpose. Obama quickly abandoned his pledge to allow medicare to haggle over drug prices, so he carries some responsibility for those continued unfunded medicare drug costs that mysteriously do not appear on his side of the ledger. And he extended the Bush tax cuts, which are now the Obama tax cuts, where are those in this chart?

But for all that, nobody can be responsible for a broken budget if the budget isn't busted, and it isn't, so it's sort of a moot point. Wall Street's teabagger mob might break it on purpose, I suppose, but think of the 11 dimensional chess: Barry missed his opportunity to break the oligarchy, but now the oligarchy's astroturf campaign has run amok and is trying their damnedest to give him a mulligan by inventing a financial crisis out of thin air. Pretty clever!

[buermann]

Well, it's easy not to add much spending when you inherit such a high baseline from your predecessor. The DoD baseline has remained somewhere around Bush's peak, with the additional wartime spending shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan to no clear purpose. Obama quickly abandoned his pledge to allow medicare to haggle over drug prices, so he carries some responsibility for those continued unfunded medicare drug costs that mysteriously do not appear on his side of the ledger. And he extended the Bush tax cuts, which are now the Obama tax cuts, where are those in this chart?

But for all that, nobody can be responsible for a broken budget if the budget isn't busted, and it isn't, so it's sort of a moot point. Wall Street's teabagger mob might break it on purpose, I suppose, but think of the 11 dimensional chess: Barry missed his opportunity to break the oligarchy, but now the oligarchy's astroturf campaign has run amok and is trying their damnedest to give him a mulligan by inventing a financial crisis out of thin air. Pretty clever!

[geoff]

I know your point Ron. However, just to be silly, I thought BO only dealt with the present and future never the past [or that's maybe only for potential crimes of past administrations]. So why is the man of the present and future moaning about the bills Georgie racked up in past. Besides he's had 2 years to unwrap the mess and seems to have done nothing much really. He likes playing at being CinC and saluting stuff so he could have order everyone home from places that are 90% sand and had lots of things to salute most alive too, eh. Then he could have gutted the Bush tax cuts. Both these things he should have done in his first 12 months. Mr. Completely Useless loves to quote Ronny but maybe BO should have learned something from LBJ - oh shit LBJ was a Democrat POTUS. BO knows nothing of them except that the last one liked getting blown by interns in the O Office. He could have actually done a stimulus also. I suspect BO is happy as a pig in shit about the potential mess everything is in currently - incidentally it really is likely a Y2K event - and he's spending most of his time with his business cronies planning how to completely screw most citizens if there is any fallout. For the idiots on Wall St and the financiers, the real problem is things shouldn't have gotten this far. Serious people in the rest of the world will likely be suspicious of the US more than they are currently. This isn't too good since as everyone knows, that loves austerity, confidence is everything and once the confidence fairy has flown away it's hard to get her back.

[geoff]

I should have referenced this Real News clip which provides 3 options Mr Completely Useless has or had:

http://j.mp/o0CWUr

I know BO said in response to 1 of the WHs steno crew at a press conference that he had a legal opinion saying the 14th wasn't on. Of course no one followed up from dementia crew that supposedly provides news as to why he could reject legal opinions about killing people and going to war but not about screwing around with the friggin books.

Of the 3 options I like the trillion dollar coin one, sort of reminds me of that Mark Twain story - wonder if BO might have read it. Gregory Peck starred in a UK made version of it I saw as a kid:

http://j.mp/oTb0O8

[Kat]

My problem with the graph? Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and the continued money pouring into Iraq for contract killers. Where is the money for bombing and fighting in these countries represented in the graph?

[geoff]

Kat it's because the graph only shows the impacts of programs, wars, fiascos started under the banner of either George or Obama so it has to be a snap shot and not a flow. Better table was issued by the WH this morning here: http://j.mp/pI6ZuR

But you have to remember that Bushy only started some of this shit & BO has carried it on so who is guilty the willful or willfully blind? You get to decide I think being part of the manipulatable annoyance, aka a citizen and voter.

[geoff]

Kat it's because the graph only shows the impacts of programs, wars, fiascos started under the banner of either George or Obama so it has to be a snap shot and not a flow. Better table was issued by the WH this morning here: http://j.mp/pI6ZuR

But you have to remember that Bushy only started some of this shit & BO has carried it on so who is guilty the willful or willfully blind? You get to decide I think being part of the manipulatable annoyance, aka a citizen and voter.

[geoff]

Shit sorry about the doubles, eh.

[Kat]

If there was a 'like' button I could use it on your comment geoff. I understand what you say. However, on the graph it's quite clear that bush has the blame for wars - why not obama? I did see the revised graph earlier, not much difference. Is the money for obama's wars hidden in these graphs? - it doesn't appear to be. My conclusion is the numbers are skewed to make obama look better. I don't dispute the bush numbers - we all know he tore the country to shreds. I'm just not believin' the halo over obama's head.

[Bill H.]

Well, "the graph only shows the impacts of programs" is pretty weak rebuttal. We're takling about costs incurred here. When I go to the bank can I deduct accidental costs from the debts that I include on my balance sheet? No. The costs I incur are owed whether I PLANNED to incur the costs or not.

The blame game is becoming ridiculous. Democrats have had four years to undo Bush excesses and Obama has had two years, and they have not eve TRIED to undo them. They have, instead, continued and worsened them with more tax cuts and more spending programs. The time for blaming Bush is long past.

And, as has been pointed out, they are no longer the "Bush tax cuts." Obama extended them for two full years, and they are now the "Obama tax cuts." It's time to talk solution and quit weeping about "it's all somebody elose's fault."

[Kat]

Thanks Bill. Totally understood. I'm just a bit hard headed and like things perfectly clear.

[Kat]

For clarity, the Kat who commented above is not the usual Newshoggers Kat.

Kat
Newshoggers' researcher