Deficit Distortion

The Deficit, a fact America will have to live for a long time. Since President Obama was inaugurated in 2009 the Deficit has somehow become the #1 priority for Republicans and "Tea Bagger's" alike. The one huge thing you hear thrown around a lot by Republicans is that "President Obama has added more to the deficit than all other President's combined" As most recently my 12th grade ceramics teacher (kinda tells you why hes not a Econ or Government teacher). This statement is flat out false. At the end of President Bush's term the debt stood at $10.627 trillion, and as of May 2011 the debt stands at $14.345 trillion an increase of $3.411 trillion, or 35% of the previous accumulated debt. No where near 100%+. You may also hear that President Obama "apparently by himself" has added $4.000 trillion to the national debt. This is also false and inaccurate and a clear example of the Deficit distortion.

The graph released by Center for American Progress based of reports and statistics by the CBO, shows that 40% of our national debt is caused by Bush's policies including tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush's 2 wars and his drug plan. 20% be will accumulated because of the economic downturn, 12% is financial rescues begun by President Bush, and 16% is there because of Policies enacted by President Obama. Some might say some of President Bush's debt is also Democrats since Democrats took control of the house in 2007. This would also be misleading. During President Bush's term he only vetoed 12 bills, only one was before Democrats took office in 2007, meaning Bush never vetoed a spending bill in 6 years but vetoed 11 spending bills in 2 years. One small point I would like to make is that if a Republican was never "elected" (later to be found out Al Gore won in 2000) and President Clinton's policies which created 23 million jobs, without raising the debt; we would have a $0.00 deficit for the fiscal year 2011 and money in the bank.

The graph above shows what the next 10 year's of our deficit will be attributed to.


Sources: Politifact.com / Mediamatters.org

Five Facts:

• The current administration along with the congress has only added 35% of what the previous accumulated debt was.
• More than 60% of the current debt added can be accounted to the Bush administration.
• No spending bill before 2007 was vetoed by President Bush.
• If a Republican was never elected in 2000 we would have a $0.00 deficit.
• President Obama only passed the bush tax cuts so that people making $249k or less could receive tax cuts.