The Bush Deficit

[babsbunny]

The Bush Deficit

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/83-83/6767-the-bush-deficit

Jonathan Cohn
July 25, 2011 | 9:28 am


Critics of President Obama never tire of blaming him for today's high deficits. But if blame belongs with one president, it belongs with Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. The chart above, which the New York Times created based upon figures from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, illustrates this point very clearly. But it's worth reviewing the history here, because while it's familiar to most of us who follow politics it doesn't seem to get a lot of attention in the political debate.

By the end of the 1990s, the federal budget was in surplus for the first time in decades. Partly that was a product of unusually strong economic growth, during the internet boom, which had swelled tax revenues. But partly that was a product of responsible budgeting, presided over by the most recent two presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In order to reduce deficits, lawmakers and those two presidents had agreed both to raise taxes and to reduce spending.

[badtoworse]

1. Looking just at the national debt....

it was about $5.7 Trillion when Bush took office and about $10.6 Trillion when he left office, so under his watch, the national debt increased by about $4.9 Trillion. Our debt will soon be about $14.2 Trillion, so under Obama's watch, it has increased $3.6 Trillion so far.

I would say that neither president looks very good in terms of the national debt.

By comparison, the debt was about $4.2 Trillion when Clinton took office, so in his 8 years, it only increased by about $1.5 Trillion.

[dkf]

2. Yet the top 2% is only $700 billion going forward compared to $3.8 trillion if the middle class cuts

Also expire.

If you want to blame the Bush tax cuts, the top 2% isn't the story, it's the rest of it.