Posted on 10/26/2009 8:56:09 AM PDT by markomalley
A top White House economic adviser will make the case for healthcare reform this afternoon while taking shots at Bush administration policies.
In a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress, Christina Romer, Director of the Council of Economic Advisers, will argue that the actions of the Bush administration--and not stimulus spending--were largely responsible for the current deficit.
According to excerpts released by the White House, Romer will cite a study concluding that "roughly half of the long-run deficit is due to the policy actions of the past 8 years," while "just 3 percent of the long-run fiscal problem is due to the [stimulus.]"
"Obviously, we can’t go back eight years and make more responsible choices," Romer will say.
Instead, the best way to get out of the fiscal hole is to reform healthcare.
"Putting in place health care reform that genuinely slows the growth rate of costs is truly one of the largest and most important fiscal reforms we can undertake," Romer will say.
Romer will also hit back at those who think the nation can't afford a near-trillion dollar reform package.
"Some have argued that it is irresponsible to reform our health care system at a time when the budget deficit is so large and our long-run fiscal problems are so severe," Romer will say. "I firmly believe the opposite: it is fiscally irresponsible not to do health care reform.”
There is absolutely no question that President Bush is responsible for a portion of today’s record-breaking deficit. He did nothing during his tenure to reign in out of control spending and the burgeoning federal government. He was in a position to make a real difference in the future course of America. He dropped the ball, pure and simple. I don’t know of a conservative alive that doesn’t put a lot of blame for our problems directly on his shoulders. True, he accomplished a lot, not the least of which was to protect us from another 9-11 disaster. And for that I am eternally grateful. True, he cut taxes and gave us some truly great Supreme Court justices. And there are other things he did and did correctly. But underlying all of those good things it the fact that when it came to spending and the size of government he was asleep at the wheel. He entered office honestly thinking he could bring bipartisan government to Washington. This is evidenced by the fact he let Ted Kennedy practically write the No Child Left Behind policy. He reached out several times, and every time he lost. The other side is simply not interested in bipartisanship. Their idea of bipartisan is that the Right turn over and play dead.
Now, having manned up to the faults of George Bush, it’s time to point out that his part of the deficit is not even a third of what we have today. Remember all the hell that was raised when last year’s deficit hit a record high? Well, guess what? This years will be four times bigger and yet you don’t hear even a whimper of protest from the Left and the MSM.
Democrats’ Spending by the Numbers Posted by Kevin Boland on October 21st, 2009
http://republicanleader.house.gov/blog/?cat=5
The debt explosion isn’t an accident - it’s the direct result of Democratic policies, starting with the President’s $1 trillion “stimulus.” The House Republican Conference, chaired by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), crunched the numbers and laid out the extent of the Democrats’ reckless spending - just in the past nine months.
$1.417 Trillion: The FY 2009 federal deficit, the highest amount ever and three times last year’s record-setting deficit of $458 billion.
10 percent: The 2009 deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the highest since 1945, the last year of World War II. Since 1946, the deficit as a percentage of GDP had never topped 6 percent.
$9.050 Trillion: The combined amount of deficits the White House predicts over the next ten years under the President’s budget.
$739 Billion: The smallest annual deficit over the next ten years under the President’s budget.
$11.952 Trillion: The current national debt, including Treasury securities held by the government.
$38,840: The amount of the national debt owed by each man, woman, and child in the U.S.
$104,094: The share of the national debt owed by every household in the U.S.
$3.282 Trillion: The amount the national debt has increased since Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007.
$1.325 Trillion: The amount the national debt has increased since President Obama was inaugurated just nine months ago, on January 20, 2009.
$199 Billion: The amount of money spent by the government to pay the interest on its debts in 2009.
$12.104 Trillion: The current limit on national debt, which was raised from $11.315 trillion for the “stimulus” bill and which Democrats now say must be raised yet again soon.
$24.498 Trillion: The total national debt in 2019 under the President’s budget, according to White House estimates.
The “White House” and Congress OWN this financial crisis, especially the criminals involved in the housing debacle.
Mike—Thanks for picking up on that. I deliberately left that out just to see if there are others like us out there.
Thanks for the ping.
Well, once again they are proving themselves dumber than a bag of hammers...
Another analogy...
When the clothes come out of the wash...That “red” sock that got mixed into the load...We knew what was going to happen, yet...They still did it anyway...
Somehow we got to figure out a way to pull the plug on these numbnuts...
Ohhhh!!! 2010!!! Yeah, thats the ticket...If we can last that long...
Romer used to be respected as an intelligent woman. Now she’s just another political hack trying to cover up BO’s obvious incompetence. One would think she might have a shred of character instead of being another sell-out.
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