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Found by Cinàedh.
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90% of statistics are made up, the other 10% are statistically inaccurate.
I agree it would be more informative to show both the president and the majority parties, but it doesn’t change the fact that since the creation of the Federal Reserve, politicians take the easy out when tough fiscal decisions need to be made.
I’m just waiting to see which party is going to vote against raising the debt ceiling. Oh, right, that would make our cost of borrowing go up.
There was something in PBS’ Frontline, about how the more recent Bush administration, and the Republican controlled US Congress, green lighted such ruinous deficit spending. Just before handing it over to Obama, to try and fix. But I think this time, they’ve pushed the debt ceiling so high. The US economy will never recover. At least not on a single or double Democratic term of office.
WW3 could end up being some future Republican President’s solution to the US debt to China. Cause I don’t know how they’re going to magically make it go away, otherwise. The only other possibility might be requiring most Americans to sacrifice their land and home ownership, to bring down the debt. While the top 1% still gets to keep all their pricey possessions. And the rest of us will be back to the 14th century style of European economics. Serfs and Kings.
Congress really has the power. Redo this chart with a ratio of Dems to Republicans in the House and Senate.
All this shows me is that all these politicians don’t know how to stay out of debt with our money.
Even a little debt is debt.
Cursor_
Can I suggest something strange..?
WHO HERE with CREDIT..can NOT PAY IT BACK?
WHAT corp, can keep spending, and NOT PAY FOR IT?
Anyone think its time to QUIT PAYING the Gov. PIG?
CUT a few salaries, wages?
Overlay it with the stock market bubble and you’d see why the budget appeared balanced in the mid to late-90s. Trillions were created out of thin air, all taxed.
THIS CHART IS FAKE.
Individuals and government in the US are in the same boat. Here’s the worst part of it, US wages are too high.
The same solutions hold true for individuals as the government. When individual Americans manage money responsibly, the the government will follow.
Foobar,
Agree..
Wages are part of it..
STOP REGULATING MIN WAGE..
REGULATE TOP WAGE, and BENEFITS.
ALSO, any company that works IN THE USA, must use USA BANKS.
Everyone knows that Congress controls spending, not the president. When Congress is Democrat, deficits tend to increase. When Congress is Republican, deficits tend to decrease. That’s why we think Democrats are big spenders. Now that we have a Republican congress, the deficits will decrease.
Top contributors to the Democrat party: government worker’s unions. Top bogeyman for today’s deficit spending (at the state level anyway): government worker’s unions pensions. Coincidence?
DC,
and the problem comes when the OTHER SIDE gets in, and TRIES to adjust the debt. PAY it off..and they cut EVERY CORNER THEY CAN.. then services GO INTO THE SH)(TER..ROADS dont get fixed, SCHOOLS crumble, on and on..
The PROBLEM HERE, is that TONS of money went to the WAR, and NONE into the states. TONS went to corps, and NONE to FIX the problem..
MANY of the problems were FIXED and PATCHED, and then Bush and others, REMOVED THE CONTROLS on the market. Its asif, we have a bunch of 6th graders PLAYING with the country.
This is one purpose, of course. It’s how you rob the treasury to give money to your friends.
I wish I were being simply cynical but facts say it’s true.
Anyone who votes for neocons or conservatives from Nixon on is either a fool, in on the robbery or both. Problem is, what use to be regular run-of-the-mill conservatives make up a large part of the Democrats now so if you want other progressive reforms, like what FDR did that saved this country and the world, you don’t have anyone good to vote for anymore.
Everyone should just follow Texas’ lead. Conservative fiscal restraint and, according to Rick Perry during the last election, surpluses.
Except they are about to run a $25 billion deficit, have the lowest educational spending per student in the US, and have the highest % of medical uninsured. Their budget problems are about on par with California. I’m guessing that lowering taxes will fix the problem.
#18 bobbo said:
“Presidents can veto a budget and have lots of input into what the congressional budget is.”
That’s right, they can veto the budget.
And if a president wants to run the whole thing on what the CIA can get selling Afghani smack, then he can just go ahead and do that.
Somehow, I think that’s one veto that would get over-ridden.
All the Republican apologists harping on how the budget is controlled by Congress forget something important: the President has to sign the budget. The best possible interpretation of this from a Republican standpoint is that the Republican presidents are spineless wimps who bow down to the Democratic controlled congress.
I decided to spend some time working up some numbers. I looked at the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP from 1921 – 2010. I analyzed the numbers in a variety of ways such years when one party controlled the white house and both houses of congress, years when there was a Republican President and Democrat Congress and vice versa. I aslo looked at the same numbers excluding unusual events such as the Great Depression/WW2 and the recent Great Recession. Here’s what I found.
First, deficits are worse when either party controls everything. When Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress the average deficit as a percent of GDP is 6.44%. When Republicans control everything, the average deficit is 4.56% of GDP. If I exclude the Great Depression and the Great Recession, the Democrats number drops down to 2.42%.
Overall, control of the House of Representatives seems to be the biggest factor (no surprise) and Democrats are spendier. When Democrats contrl the House, the average deficit as a pct. of GDP is 6.83%. When I exclude the Great Recession and WW2/the Great Depression, it drops to a more reasonable 3.87%.
In contrast, when Republicans control the House, the average deficit as a pct of GDP is 1.1%. However, the Republicans never controlled the house during the Great Depression/WW2 or the Great Recession.
What’s intersting is how the great Republican conservative heroes, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, compare to the evil Liberal’s, Carter and Clinton. The average deficit under Carter (which was during a bad recession) was 2.35% of GDP. During Clinton’s presidency, the average deficit was 0.49% of GDP.
By comparison, the average deficit under Regan was 4.14% of GDP and under Bush Jr. it was 2.39%. What’s the deal with that?
I know someone will say, what about before Clinton and Carter?!! How about Johnson/Kennedy? Well, during the Johnson/Kennedy years, the deficit as a pct. of GDP was…1.07%. And that was during Vietnam and the “Great Society” years.
The bottom line for me is that we’re better off with Democratic Presidents and Senate and a Republican House. Or, the Democrats in control of the house need to get their act together. Alternatively, we could try to find a Republican president who isn’t a spendthrift or is willing to veto budgets that he/she doesn’t like.
Perhaps a good model might be Eisenhower. During his 8 years in Office when he had a mostly Democratic congress, the average deficit was 0.12% of GDP. Sadly, the Tea-party wackos and ultra-conservative dolts who seem to dominate the Republican party these days would never elect a comparatively moderate President like Eisenhower. Sad.
This chart is stupid, but anyone thinking the deficit will decrease under a Republican congress is crazy.
Obama and the Republicans will compromise countless times resulting in a ton of new spending.
Like how they both kept the Bush tax cuts AND extended unemployment benefits more than an extra year. And this was before the Republicans even officially took control in the House.
Corporate interests own Congress like never before. Don’t expect much.
Meanwhile, Republicans are drafting up an ObamaCare repeal they know won’t get through. But they’ll say they “tried”. Lip service and politics like usual.
The point is … the state of national politics is about scoring points and getting power. Obamacare was an issue the Republicans could use as a political football for the election; that election is over.
They’ll spend as much money as the Democrats do. That is our corrupt political system for you.
Two parties driving down virtually the same and unaccountable road.
I’m noticing something missing from this chart…