Did Bush Cut The Deficit in Half

[dtotire]

Did Bush "cut the deficit in half"?

President Bush claims that "we have now achieved our goal of cutting the budget deficit in half." Source Is this true?

First, be careful, the deficit is annual additions to national debt. So all he's saying is that the national debt is not going up as fast as it had been. It's certainly not going down (as it did in between 1995 and 2001 — see graph). So in terms of the accumulated national debt, we haven't cut anything except its rate of increase (that's better, but the debt is still headed the wrong way).

Second, he's not talking about the annual gross (total) budget deficit, but only a part of it. As this chart shows, the total deficit has hardly decreased at all. note



Read the rest. There is a graph.


http://zfacts.com/p/519.html

[Atman]

1. No, he cut in half the exaggerated number he predicted in the first place...

...so he could claim to have "cut it in half" later on.

It;s like a store inflating a $50 retail price to $100 then offering 50% off. The final price is still way too high, but it's half off what they first said it would be. Such a deal, eh?

Rest assured...Bush is lying. His lips moved, so it should have been easy to tell.

.

[aquart]

2. Did he say that to get laughs?

[whistle]

3. From when to when

:wtf:

I really think we have to look at the total picture which Bush plans to leave the country in compared to what it would have looked like under democratic control over the total eight years. The national debt has doubled and I believe the path that Clinton had left would have reduced the national debt by over half and perhaps even have wiped it out in eight years.

BushCo and the republicans have created an economic disaster. So again I say :wtf:

[DCKit]

4. Given his demonstrated grasp of reality, no doubt.

Not to mention his deep respect for education and undisputed skills with numbers.

The whole bunch of them spout the first outrageous thing that comes to mind - or just bypass the whole "thinking" thing - for every and all situations.

There has never been an administration that has taken such great advantage of a compliant citizenry in the history of the USA. Stalin and Hitler wrote the book and, as long as the Repukes keep telling us they're keeping us safe and how good we have it, they'll keep us bent over and loving it.

[MiniMe]

5. Semantics.

[doc03]

6. He cut it in half after he quadrupled it. n/t