The Gazette Opinion StaffOpinion Page Editor, The Gazette |
|
Email the author
Federal government’s spending out of control
Is it ever going to stop? In a recent Sunday paper comes a slick flyer pleading for those on any federal assistance program to sign up for free cellphones with 250 free minutes per month. Supposedly the reason for the service is that it is for those who might need to call 911 for emergency assistance and have no other options. I understand that, but 250 minutes a month? Seems like a lot of emergencies. Get real!
Have you noticed that the federal government has taken over the student loan program? Obama’s administration is already complaining that the program is losing great amounts of money in only the first year or so of the program. If it can’t manage that relatively simple program, how in the world is it going to run the gigantic health program? And he is going to raid the Medicare program for a half-trillion dollars to cover up some of the losses. I hope you seniors pay attention.
“Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” Sen. Barack Obama, 2006. That was before he started spending over a trillion dollars over budget on an annual basis.
Gary Rees
Manchester
-u20042.png?1366232523)
Mr. Rees,
Yes the spending will eventually stop. The only question is whether it’s voluntary or not.
I am no fan of Obama and would be happy to see him serve one term. But to replace him with another big spender like Romney, Santorum or Gingrich, especially if the Republicans control Congress will not solve this problem. Look what happened under Bush. Sorry to ruin your day, but the way things are trending, expect a lot more spending no matter who lives in the White House next year.
“another big spender like Romney, Santorum or Gingrich”
I’ll need a citation for that.
I don’t actually expect to get one, as most people old enough to remember the 90s know it was under Gingrich that the budget deficit went down.
Bush was a pretty big spender, adding expensive social programs to live up to his “compassionate” conservative label, but compared to Obama, he was a cheapskate. It was reported this week that Obama has added more debt in onw term than Bush did in two.
Jim,
I’m plenty old enough to remember that Newt did not do it all himself. Remember, Clinton was in the White House. (Please don’t mistake that for support for Clinton.) That is the point I was making if the Republicans controlling the White House and Congress. But the debt went up under his speakership and he had a surplus two of the four years.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/dec/16/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich-repeats-claim-about-his-record-balan/
And although I haven’t seen any estimates, I’m pretty sure a Moon Colony is pretty expensive.
Sorry admin accused me of spamming so I had to break up my reponse
Santorum:
Voted for the Bridge to Nowhere
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00220
Voted Against an Bill to specifically defund the Bridge to Nowhere
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00262
Voted to increase the debt ceiling five times (1997, 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2006) for a combined $3.5 TRILLION.
Last one
Romney increased state spending:
http://www.factcheck.org/mitt_and_rudys_cherry_orchard.html
Romney substantially increased fees. That’s one way to get revenue without raising taxes, but for some of us that’s kinda the same thing
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/simi_valley_showdown.html
Jim, these guys might not spend as much as Obama, but don’t confuse that with cutting spending and restoring fiscal responsibility.
You shouldn’t have wasted your time. You may be old enough but you don’t seem to be all that clear on separation of powers. Budget bills originate from the House of Representatives, not from the president.
“Jim, these guys might not spend as much as Obama, but don’t confuse that with cutting spending and restoring fiscal responsibility.”
So, you’ll show them by voting for the even bigger spender? Wow, that makes sense.
If they don’t spend as much as Obama, then they will spend less, hence cutting spending.
What makes you think I would vote for Obama? And apparantly you don’t understand the difference between a slower rate of spending growth and cutting spending. Republicans who vote for one of these guys expecting change will be as disappointed as those Democrats who voted for Obama
I agree spending is out of control, but two inherited wars is a major part of the problem. Also, the phones are supplied by a private non-profit organization, no government funds are used.
Actually Bill, two wars are NOT a major part of the problem.
While I certainly believe 1.5 trillion (the rough cost of the two wars to date since 2002) is a lot of money, put in context, during the last 10 years the US government has averaged spending 3 trillion dollars a year, or 30 trillion in the last 10 years.
That means that the wars cost less than 5% of the federal budget over that time frame.
Indeed, there are much bigger culprits to place the blame on…
Lawrence, unfortunately, the spending WILL continue, if you look at trends over the decades. The issue is if we can get in under control. My belief is no. Not as long as we continue to live in a society where people believe they are entitled to anything, i.e., in the form of government revenue.
You are correct in your reply however, none of the current GOP candidates will be able to undue what years of progressive ideas have done to our country. In that sense, they are just like Obama.
The only way to fundamentally change what our government does it get back to what the founders intially intended, which was to have the states have much more power than they do, and not the federal government. Once we get the revenue out of DC, than, and only than, will you set the foundation for that change.
Ray, Unfortunately you are all too correct.
Yes, and he called Bush “unpatriotic” for a level of debt far lower than his. What a hypocrite!
Iowa natives, apparently you didn’t know what those of us who have lived in major cities know; Community Organizer is just a euphemism for B.S. Artist.
Are you addressing anyone specifically who *hasn’t* lived in a major city, Galt?
Jim, yes I remember…the actual quote:
On July 3, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama said this:
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
Love this quote from Ed Morrisey:
“if Obama can use the increase in the national debt to question Bush’s patriotism, doesn’t it follow that increasing deficit spending by 152 percent per month makes Obama 152 percent more ’unpatriotic’ than Bush?”
I guess it does.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/08/24/obama-2008-bush-debt-unpatriotic/
Someone who did not know better might read the last sentence in this letter and think that President Obama “started spending over a trillion dollars over budget on an annual basis”.
The worst federal deficit (over $1.4 trillion) and the first one over a trillion dollars was in Fiscal Year 2009. Some may label that an “Obama deficit” but they would be wrong. Fiscal year 2009 started on Oct. 1 of 2008 and ran through September 30, 2009. The budget for that year was established under the Bush Administration. It’s the budget that President Obama inherited with and had to live under for the first 8 months of his administration but it was a Bush budget and it created a Bush deficit.
The deficit, while still to high, went down in the next fiscal year.
Wow, Rich, that sure makes me feel better!
I do not believe Reagan was given the same pass when they spoke of his record debt. Matter of fact, I’m sure of it.
“The deficit, while still high” is the understatement of the year.
I’m so glad you brought Reagan up. Let’s check the record. The 4 Carter budgets (FY78 – 81) gave us deficits of 59, 40, 73 and 79 billion. Then, the first Reagan budget raised the deficit by 62% to $128 billion and he did not look back with deficits in the next 7 fiscal years of 208, 185, 212, 221, 149, 155, 152 billion. Reagan introduced us to an era of high deficits. Then deficits went down in the Clinton years and back up in the Bush years. Do ya see a pattern here?
Rich, my argument is not that Reagan’s deficits were not high. They certainly were.
My point is you seem to give Obama a pass as if his spending is any better than Bush. Bush’s last outlier year was the highest, when TARP was passed.
And please keep in mind, Congress was dominated by the GOP during the time deficits dropped dramatically…
http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html
I’m not giving President Obama a pass on high deficits. I’m just attempting to point out that President Obama did not start the trillion dollar plus deficits, as the letter writer is trying to say.
“America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” Sen. Barack Obama, 2006. That was before he started spending over a trillion dollars over budget on an annual basis.”
He said nothing about Obama starting trillion dollar deficits, as you can see.
“Someone who did not know better might read the last sentence in this letter and think that President Obama “started spending over a trillion dollars over budget on an annual basis”.”
Hate to quibble, but I don’t see how anyone can see that…look:
“That was before he started spending over a trillion dollars over budget on an annual basis.”
Now look how people most likley COULD miscontrue it:
“That was before he became the first President to spend over a trillion dollars over budget.”
See the difference? Anyway:
“The worst federal deficit (over $1.4 trillion) and the first one over a trillion dollars was in Fiscal Year 2009. Some may label that an “Obama deficit” but they would be wrong. Fiscal year 2009 started on Oct. 1 of 2008 and ran through September 30, 2009. The budget for that year was established under the Bush Administration. It’s the budget that President Obama inherited with and had to live under for the first 8 months of his administration but it was a Bush budget and it created a Bush deficit.
The deficit, while still to high, went down in the next fiscal year.”
So? That’s like saying, “look honey, instead of paying 3000 dollars more on that new car then I should have, I got a deal and only spent 2800 dollars more!
You’re triangulating over two words: budget and deficit.
Rich, it depends on how you want to draw the line. The 2009 budget was passed by a Democratically controlled congress and signed by President Obama on March 11(?), 2009. So technically, since Obama signed it and not Bush, one could call it Obama’s budget.
But that doesn’t absolve Bush of the spending bills he signed during his tenure.
You’re correct Rich. Spending growth under President Obama is considerably less than any of the previous Republicans.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/03/per-capita-government-spending-by-president.html
Come on boys let be honest here, Bush is the only president to cut taxes during the time of war, wars he started. When Bush became president he walked into a balanced budget with a surplus. Now tell me what a great president Bush was.
Several months ago the Gazette published a graph of the deficit over about the last decade ( if I recall correctly (?) ). I searched for such graph that I could link but couldn’t find anything similar. I recall the rather steep upward slope of the graph started about the beginning of the G.W.Bush administration and the angle of the slope has remained relatively constant ever since.
Does this help, Karl?
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
Though it’s spread over a greater number of years than what I recall the Gazette graph showed, and hence doesn’t show quite as much detail for the last decade, it’s good information.
Here’s a basic graph, and you can make your own graph if you want.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1997_2017USb_13s1li111mcn_G0t
Bush sucked as a POTUS, francis.
Where we disagree is so does O’bummer.
What is out of control is the insatiable greed of the moneychangers that have come to own the Republican Party and the best politicians that money can buy.
This entitled 00.006% have hoarded the nation’s wealth and made off with the trillions that is red-ink debt to the other 999.994% of Americans that constitute the declining middle class, increasing working poor and those that are now totally destitute. That huge pile of red ink did not evaporate; it went into the deep pockets of those that took it.
This was federal money that should have been used to build the advanced infrastructure of a nation existing in an ever changing world and used to also repair that which is rusting and rotting away.
The loot has been latched onto by the same kind of self-important plutocrats that indentured Colonial Americans who as a rising middle class and craft and toiling laborers had enough and created a new nation dedicated to the proposition that all mankind under the law were created equal.
In the plantation south some of these masters were able to linger on in entitlement to the degree that they thought they could still own people as slaves and look down on and hold in their places others as white trash. The first Republican president, Abe Lincoln, led the people in Union to end this economic tyranny and to ensure, in his words, that government of the people, by the people and for the people would not perish from the earth.
It is time that those that took all of the money that is debt to all of the nation start paying it back and that it be used to create good jobs at good wages building a new nation of infrastructure for a new era of the American Dream for all. To this end the nations needs to go totally electric with so much energy capture from the sun, wind, sea and gravity that it can be licensed for free individual use and free WE THE PEOLE from the rationing of opportunity by the moneychangers of finances and indenture to international oil empires. This power is also needed to electrify a national system of low-cost fare and laden high-speed and light rail.
“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. In this world of our in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy. I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope.” ~ FDR to the 1936 Democratic Nation Convention and people that would become known as America’s Greatest Generation.
“What is out of control is the insatiable greed of the moneychangers that have come to own the Republican Party and the best politicians that money can buy.”
What complete and utter bunk Sam. Progressivism is what is out of control, and both parties are lousy with it.
“This entitled 00.006% have hoarded the nation’s wealth and made off with the trillions that is red-ink debt to the other 999.994% of Americans that constitute the declining middle class, increasing working poor and those that are now totally destitute.”
Unless you back up that claim with non-partisan facts that show the “rich” are taking money from us poor and destititute, your post belongs in the trash heap.
“That huge pile of red ink did not evaporate; it went into the deep pockets of those that took it.”
Who? How? When?
“This was federal money that should have been used to build the advanced infrastructure of a nation existing in an ever changing world and used to also repair that which is rusting and rotting away.”
Wow! Who stole that money? The Bush’s? Are you in on the conspiracy of the Trilateral Commission?
“The loot has been latched onto by the same kind of self-important plutocrats that indentured Colonial Americans who as a rising middle class and craft and toiling laborers had enough and created a new nation dedicated to the proposition that all mankind under the law were created equal.”
Who are these people Sam? Names please.
“In the plantation south some of these masters were able to linger on in entitlement to the degree that they thought they could still own people as slaves and look down on and hold in their places others as white trash. The first Republican president, Abe Lincoln, led the people in Union to end this economic tyranny and to ensure, in his words, that government of the people, by the people and for the people would not perish from the earth.”
So now we have slave owners still? Holding the American people in slavery?
“It is time that those that took all of the money that is debt to all of the nation start paying it back and that it be used to create good jobs at good wages building a new nation of infrastructure for a new era of the American Dream for all. To this end the nations needs to go totally electric with so much energy capture from the sun, wind, sea and gravity that it can be licensed for free individual use and free WE THE PEOLE from the rationing of opportunity by the moneychangers of finances and indenture to international oil empires. This power is also needed to electrify a national system of low-cost fare and laden high-speed and light rail.”
Wow…what’s that song, “life is just a fantasy”…
“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. In this world of our in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy. I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope.” ~ FDR to the 1936 Democratic Nation Convention and people that would become known as America’s Greatest Generation.”
Make no mistake, the people who FOUGHT in wars and helped the war effort were the greatest generation. FDR, who helped create this monster we have now, most certainly was not.
Very well said, Sam!
OK, since he won’t answer…
“That huge pile of red ink did not evaporate; it went into the deep pockets of those that took it.”
Who? How? When?
Sam, that is the biggest load of crap I’ve ever read. Wall Street donated far more to Obama during the 2008 campaign than they did to McCain. Obama told us during his 2008 campaign that electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket because he intended to bankrupt anybody that dared to build a new coal fired power plant. As for free energy from wind and solar, how’s that working out for Britain, Spain and Germany?
Bush and Cheney were pilloried relentlessly by Democrats and the press about high gas prices, and now Democrats want us to believe there is nothing anybody can do increase oil production even as they take credit for increased oil production in the years since Obama has been president. They argue that new supplies from ANWR or Canadian tar sands would have no effect on gas prices, but raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would.
Obama’s energy department violated the law by allowing a principle owner of Solendra, said to be worth over $12 billion, to have his investment take precedence over the governments in case of bankruptcy, when they handed Solendra over $500 million. The green energy scandals of this administration have no equivalent in any administration I know of. Just stuff enough money into Obama’s fundraising G-string and the bread comes floating back like magic. Where are the equivalent scandals during the Bush administration? Before anyone says Halliburton, remember that the Obama administration vowed to cut off Halliburton and KBR, but couldn’t find anybody else to even bid on the services they were providing.
Well said Sam.
(I’m sure this comment is too short also. We need voting buttons to show agreement.)
Seriously, where did you copy this from. Perhaps some lost Upton Sinclar manuscript?
@fhubler Test this feature to see if it really works.