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30ashopper

SoWal Insider
Apr 30, 2008
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Right here!
Since this has been a hot topic lately, I happened across a heritage foundation peice today with a nice graph showing where we're headed. I kind of wish they would have gone back farther, but I'm sure we'll see graphs like that in time as Obama's spending mount.



wapoobamabudget1.jpg


Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures ? The Foundry

There are some great bullet points in the post as well.
 

scooterbug44

SoWal Expert
May 8, 2007
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I'd love to see a breakdown showing how much of the spending is new and how much of it is a result of things already in place.

For example, I don't consider it fair to be calling it all "Obama's deficit" when it's still billions accruing from Iraq, the bailout passed under Bush, the budget they hashed out under Bush etc.

It would be cool if they could do different colored stripes so we could see how much was interest, how much was military, how much was social programs etc.
 

30ashopper

SoWal Insider
Apr 30, 2008
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Right here!
I'd love to see a breakdown showing how much of the spending is new and how much of it is a result of things already in place.

For example, I don't consider it fair to be calling it all "Obama's deficit" when it's still billions accruing from Iraq, the bailout passed under Bush, the budget they hashed out under Bush etc.

Bush and our democrat congress's deficit spending is reflected in the 2008 figure. Anything in 2009 Obama and the democrats in congress are responsible for. Obama doesn't have to spend on anything he doesn't want to. The numbers beyond 2009 are entirely Obama's as they are based on his proposed budget.

It would be cool if they could do different colored stripes so we could see how much was interest, how much was military, how much was social programs etc.

The graph represents spending of money the federal government has to borrow. You can float where it goes around to whatever you want. Since entitlements represent 1/3 of the federal budget, it's accurate to say that all of the deficits under Obama are being spent on entitlements. It would also be accurate to say a large percentage is being spent on military funding. It's all relative.
 
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Susan Horn

Beach Fanatic
But it is not reasonable to call this Obama's spending, as he walked into a complete meltdown created by the Bush administration. Bush, on the other hand, walked into office with record surpluses and that's all I can stand to remind myself of at the moment.
 

30ashopper

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Apr 30, 2008
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But it is not reasonable to call this Obama's spending, as he walked into a complete meltdown created by the Bush administration. Bush, on the other hand, walked into office with record surpluses and that's all I can stand to remind myself of at the moment.


Bush walked into a bursting asset bubble from the tech bust. The same guy who created that created this one, his name is Greenspan. If you're looking for someone to blame on that, look first to Greenspan himself, then Bush and of course Bill Clinton. Those surpluses democrats like to mention were artificially produced, which should be obvious to everyone by now.
 
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30ashopper

SoWal Insider
Apr 30, 2008
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Right here!
But all of this is off the point. I get the feeling you guys are cool with Obama's projected spending. At least, in order to accept it, you take solice in thinking, "it's not his fault, it's Bush's."? :dunno:
 

6thGen

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Aug 22, 2005
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Bush and our democrat congress's deficit spending is reflected in the 2008 figure. Anything in 2009 Obama and the democrats in congress are responsible for. Obama doesn't have to spend on anything he doesn't want to. The numbers beyond 2009 are entirely Obama's as they are based on his proposed budget.



The graph represents spending of money the federal government has to borrow. You can float where it goes around to whatever you want. Since entitlements represent 1/3 of the federal budget, it's accurate to say that all of the deficits under Obama are being spent on entitlements. It would also be accurate to say a large percentage is being spent on military funding. It's all relative.

Today's interest in 5 year T-notes doesn't do much for his cause.
 

TooFarTampa

SoWal Insider
I found the chart sufficiently horrifying, yes. And I agree with the basic idea that Obama doesn't have to spend on anything he doesn't want to.

But since I find myself nodding my head when Obama speaks of his overarching philosophy, it is hard for me to come out against it. If you are a true fiscal conservative and want smaller government, of course you rail against it. If you are a Bush defender (not saying you or anyone in particular here is), you already dislike anything Obama is going to do, so you are against it, even though the deficits didn't seem to bother such people in the past.

What would be very helpful -- and I haven't seen anything like it yet, though perhaps I have been looking in the wrong places -- is a breakdown of the proposed budget and exactly where it differs from this year or previous years, and why. Frankly I do not have time to read the entire budget and analyze it myself. And I consider myself more informed on these matters than probably 90 percent of the population.

You will notice the WaPo article that ran with the above chart did nothing to answer my question.
 

traderx

Beach Fanatic
Mar 25, 2008
2,133
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I found the chart sufficiently horrifying, yes. And I agree with the basic idea that Obama doesn't have to spend on anything he doesn't want to.

But since I find myself nodding my head when Obama speaks of his overarching philosophy, it is hard for me to come out against it. If you are a true fiscal conservative and want smaller government, of course you rail against it. If you are a Bush defender (not saying you or anyone in particular here is), you already dislike anything Obama is going to do, so you are against it, even though the deficits didn't seem to bother such people in the past.

What would be very helpful -- and I haven't seen anything like it yet, though perhaps I have been looking in the wrong places -- is a breakdown of the proposed budget and exactly where it differs from this year or previous years, and why. Frankly I do not have time to read the entire budget and analyze it myself. And I consider myself more informed on these matters than probably 90 percent of the population.

You will notice the WaPo article that ran with the above chart did nothing to answer my question.

You are okay with a budget deficit of almost $2 trillion?

As for Bush, I know of nobody that defends his deficits. And to my memory, folks have been complaining about deficits at least since Reagan.
 
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