Political talk shows are reporting that President Barack Obama's deficit will end up being four times that of former President George W. Bush's.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush's presidency, congressional auditors said Friday.
The new Congressional Budget Office figures offered a far more dire outlook for Obama's budget than the new administration predicted just last month -- a deficit $2.3 trillion worse. It's a prospect even the president's own budget director called unsustainable.
In his White House run, Obama assailed the economic policies of his predecessor, but the eye-popping deficit numbers threaten to swamp his ambitious agenda of overhauling health care, exploring new energy sources and enacting scores of domestic programs.
The dismal deficit figures, if they prove to be accurate, inevitably raise the prospect that Obama and his Democratic allies controlling Congress would have to consider raising taxes after the recession ends or else pare back his agenda.
By CBO's calculation, Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year of red ink over 2010-2019.
While I am not excited about hearing such news, I'm also a bit confused. Knowing a little bit of what President Obama has in mind to do with this budget I question --what is that we got from former President Bush's previous budgets?
Did President Bush reform our failing health care system and lower the cost of our premiums?
Did he repair our electrical grids? Did he put us on the path to energy independence? Did he try and double the production of alternative energy. Did he modernizing federal buildings and try to improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, possibly saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills?
Did President Bush fix our failing schools and the buildings we teach our precious children in? Did he expand broadband across America, so that a small business in a rural town can connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world.
Did he investing in the science, research, and technology that will lead to new medical breakthroughs, new discoveries, and entire new industries.
Did he reverse the 2003 ban on enrolling modest-income veterans, which has denied care to a million veterans? Did he hire additional claims workers, and improve training and accountability so that VA benefit decisions are rated fairly and consistently or transform the paper benefit claims process to an electronic one to reduce errors and improve timeliness? Did he try and expand Vet Centers to provide more counseling for vets and their families?
Did he fight for farm programs by trying to implement a $250,000 payment limitation so we help family farmers -- not large corporate agribusiness and close the loopholes that allow mega farms to get around payment limits?
The answer to all these questions and many more that someone might ask -- is 'no'.
What President Bush's budgets got us were two wars and an economy that sank into a near depression. He spent money digging into our private phone conversations, boarding so called prison combatants and paying for the torturing of prisoners.
President Bush did one and a half things right. He added funds to the aids epidemic and he started the prescription drug plans for seniors. But even that drug plan was grossly under budgeted because he refused to allow drugs from other nations to be negotiated on.
Other than war, can you name something he invested in for America's future? Something that perhaps gave us something in return in the long run for a little investment/pain now?
Exactly where did Pres. Bush's budgets get us? Read the papers, listen to the news on television -- you'll find out real fast.