Don't Blame All Our Budget Woes on Bush

Sunday, March 3, 2013

By John Rowerdink

Special to The Pilot

Unfortunately, most of the blather coming out of Washington via the news media regarding the upcoming budget "sequester" is long on rhetoric and short on facts.

The president and his supporters would have us believe that if these spending cuts are made, dire consequences will result. Here are a few facts to illuminate and add perspective to this matter:

Federal government spending has been running at $3.5 trillion per year since 2009. The proposed "cuts" of $85 billion per year amount to 2.4 percent of that spending, and these "cuts" are scheduled to occur every year for the next 10 years at roughly the same level.

How is it possible that a reduction in spending of 2.4 percent will have the Draconian effect the president is predicting? To put this in perspective, this is like a family earning $100,000 per year having to reduce its spending by $200 per month. I think most families could handle that.

Our annual budget deficit (shortfall) during the Obama years has been more than $1 trillion every year. So reducing this by $85 billion barely makes a dent in the deficit (8.5 percent of it). To balance the budget, we need to offset 12 times that amount! Are we really to believe that we can't reduce our federal budget deficit by 8.5 percent? That 91.5 percent of our deficit spending is absolutely essential?

To make matters worse, we normally think of "cuts" as meaning that they would actually reduce spending. Not in this case. Most of the government would actually have more to spend after the sequester than before it. In government-speak, "cuts" means they would have less to spend than they thought they would, not less than they actually had.

To take a historical perspective, the federal government's fiscal condition deteriorated mostly in the last 12 years: the eight years of the George W. Bush administration and the four years of the Obama administration. The last time the government had a budget surplus was in 2001. Since then, the federal government's revenue increased 23 percent, but its spending increased 90 percent .

That's almost double! How many of us have been able to double our spending in the last 12 years? This is why Republicans insist that the government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Why would Republicans agree to more tax increases when that would only result in even more government spending?

Before anyone tries to blame this all on George W. Bush, let me add that the cumulative budget deficits during the eight years of the Bush administration were a little over $2 trillion. During just four years of the Obama administration, the cumulative deficits have been more than $5 trillion.

Both Republicans and Democrats are saying that sequester is a terrible way to reduce spending; an ax where a scalpel is needed.

True enough. That's why Republicans in the House have twice passed legislation which would reduce spending in a more rational way and without increasing taxes. The Senate has refused to consider this legislation (or to pass a budget, for that matter) and the president seems to prefer to demagogue it to death rather than to work with the Congress to solve the problem.

What our country needs and its people deserve, is for our politicians to be honest with us and to work together to solve the serious problems we face.

John Rowerdink lives in Pinehurst.

More like this story

fugitiveguy 2 months, 2 weeks ago

"So reducing this by $85 billion barely makes a dent in the deficit"

I have heard from more than 1 source that the 85B is actually over 2 years, if this is true it is truly an anemic "cut" when you consider that the interest alone on the debt is about 1 billion daily. As usual Obama is lying through his teeth. :His drones are more than happy to repeat the lies.

JimRussell44 2 months, 2 weeks ago

We have the sequester (ax) because nobody could agree on who was to wield the scalpel. Maybe we should have a unbiased third party come in and do it for us. Hong Kong would be the logical choice but Singapore would work as well. The 3rd most financially stable country is China, but I guess they won't get picked, so we could drop down one more place in the rankings to Switzerland, known for being neutral. What do you think? Bring in Swiss?

Easygoing 2 months, 2 weeks ago

But let's not forget President Bush for the lies and deceit that he dragged us into a war and another he totally mismanaged causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of veterans with limbs blown off, as well as putting us on the road to fiscal disaster.

Toda 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Easygoing ~ total agreement!

DingoMike 2 months, 2 weeks ago

When the heck are you democrats going to STOP blaming Bush. It's been 4 years since he was in office. When is Obama going to man up and take the blame for his failure as both a man and a president.

dentman65 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Good Article - John, I saw ya driving your old car the other day, she looks great! I guess Washington is afraid the American people can't handle the truth. I have looked at the graphs and charts on spending too........but someone is always there telling me what I see is not what I see......if that makes any sense. Someone is always trying to explain it away. The proof is in the numbers as far as I am concerned

PBinNC 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Just an observation that President Bush worked with, or tried to work with, an opposition majority in the US House and Senate. That majority continued during the first two years President Obama was in office. Anything that went wrong was blamed on President Bush, it seems, and continues to be, although the opposition majority in the House is getting blame too. No matter what the person in the White House does, ultimately Congress makes the laws and approves the spending. As long as Congress is what it is, I think that's where the majority of the blame should go.

DaveyNC 2 months, 2 weeks ago

This is what it looks like when the sky is falling.

Whatever will we do? by DaveyNC

LadyLynda 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Rowerdink for President!

Middleman522 2 months, 2 weeks ago

But the US can afford this????? Does this even bother you liberals a little? We can't keep TSA on full time or refuel a carrier, but DHS is BUYING this!!??

This is getting a little creepy.

According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm.

DHS also purchased 2,717 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP

invmc 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Absolutely unrelated to this article, but I couldnt resist including my comment in reference to the seven new officers at Carthage P.D. article. Commenting has been disabled and I can only imagine why. Seems to me CPD has a longstanding habit and tradition of hiring and / or rehiring officers that cant seem to make it somewhere else. Here's a clue: If they cant make it or have issues with one Law Enforcement agency, or in some cases, agencies, there's usually a pretty good reason why. Just sayin.

teufelhunden 2 months, 2 weeks ago

America's willful blindness -- Obama is a divider not a unifier By Douglas E. Schoen

Published March 04, 2013

FoxNews.com

Smallville 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Congress could care LESS about debt when they raised their own salary to the tune of 174,000 a year. I would propose this. No Balanced budget means no pay raises for anyone. Let's get this on the ballot next election.

LadyLynda 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Smallville - If you'll type it up I'll sign it!!

fatboy 2 months, 2 weeks ago

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Li0no7O9zmE

If you can open this, it will explain Obama's logic with regard to spending and the deficit.

AFCHIEF 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Fatboy, come on man the liberals cannot grasp this simple relation from this video to the national debt and spending problem

JRowerdink 2 months, 2 weeks ago

JimRussell44 suggests that maybe we should have a third party come in and make us do what we need to do. If we don't get our act together, that's exactly what will happen. The financial markets will do it for us and it will be a lot more painful than if we do it ourselves.

John Rowerdink

Thatcher 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Mr. Rowerdink-- Great column! Cheers!

moonchild7 2 months, 2 weeks ago

No, I won't blame Bush.......I'll blame Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. The tax codes that were changed over 30 yrs ago in favor of the RICH have been eating away at the average hard working Americans pay ever since. the money's been trickled upward all of these years and if it doesn't STOP then America will STOP. The RICH pay more in taxes because they make MORE! The majority of American's earn less than $40,000 and just don't earn enough to pay hardly anything. They are becoming MINIMUM WAGE SLAVES.

AFCHIEF 2 months, 2 weeks ago

MC7, the only slaves we have in this country are the people who are DEPENDENT upon are tax money to make a living with NO Iniative to become soley dependent for themselves

Thatcher 2 months, 2 weeks ago

MC7-- I hope you and your son are doing well. Cheers!

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 2 weeks ago

The government with a mere book entry out of thin air 'buys' 85 billion of bonds per month of just issued government issued mortgage bonds-there is no shortage of money and the deficit is meaningless; they even use brokers to facilitate these trades to make them look legit-read zerohedge.com for more information - so, we have a trillion dollar deficit and now they issue 1 trillion in buybacks (by the way this is how the Nazis funded the Reichswehr, with these type of book 'entries' out of thin air).. No one could question the Reichsbank...and we have to listen to our clown of a President that we have to raise taxes???
WTF???

catonahottinroof 2 months, 2 weeks ago

What planet have you been living on? You are a moron. The wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, the mortgage bubble do any of these ring a bell? Raise taxes on the wealthy $500,000 annual income and up. And an FYI they are NOT job creators. THEY make one person do the job of 2-3 people for minimum wage. Your head is in the sand(hills) as so many people who live in this sad state.

Themis 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Move! I hear land is cheap in the Dakotas!

JRowerdink 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Catonahottinroof…….My mother always taught me that people who call others morons are usually morons. As far as the tax & spend policies you like so well, have you taken a look at Europe to see how well those policies have worked there?

John Rowerdink

LadyLynda 2 months, 2 weeks ago

John Rowerdink - Why do you suppose economic policies have failed so badly in Europe and is the United States doomed to follow them into the hole?