Who Caused the National Debt?
Anonymous repeats once again one of the biggest of all Republican lies: that Democrats are responsible for our nation's budget imbalances, and that Republicans are fiscally responsible.
Well, from Wikipedia, here are the actual facts, which Anonymous or anyone else could have found within two minutes:
In fact, Republicans have, since Nixon, adopted a policy of squandering the nation's money on the rich when they are in power, and then screaming like banshees about the debt when Democrats are in charge, to prevent Dems from acting in any way that does not benefit multinational corporations and their owners. That is the reality of Republican fiscal policy, and it is worth noting that the people who call themselves conservative have not a word to say against it when Republicans are in power. Their rage is stoked up for years, so they can let it loose on Democrats who attempt to bring the condition of American workers into parity with every other industrialized nation on earth.
This malignant falsehood is one of the principal reasons that the Republican party continues to exist despite its century long history of depredation of our economy. I may not be able to prevent the lie from being spread at Red State, Town Hall and the like, or, unfortunately at CNN and Fox News too. But I won't sit back while right wing jackals try to spread it here.
Well, from Wikipedia, here are the actual facts, which Anonymous or anyone else could have found within two minutes:
As can be seen instantly, the vast bulk of our national debt was piled up in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes, the conservatives' champions of fiscal virtue. This includes, by the way, the budget with a $1.7 trillion dollar deficit passed in October of 2008, during Bush's term, which conservatives consistently blame on Obama.
This malignant falsehood is one of the principal reasons that the Republican party continues to exist despite its century long history of depredation of our economy. I may not be able to prevent the lie from being spread at Red State, Town Hall and the like, or, unfortunately at CNN and Fox News too. But I won't sit back while right wing jackals try to spread it here.
Comments
It's pride in believing manifest untruth. A kind of political flat-earthism.
It's pride like "I don't care what the facts are, I believe the moon is made of cheese, and that's what makes me a renegade patriotic muthafucka, the end".
As you've demonstrated, it is actually as simple to research the facts about which party created the deficit - the Republican Party - as it is to find out where your nearest Burger King is.
"Mm Hm Hm
Barack Hussein Obama
Communism is his game
Nothing new, the same old same"
There's rational argument for you. You know something, Anonymous, you should learn to read, so you can cite something slightly more authoritative than some jackass on You tube.
After all, it's congress that spends the money; the president only signs the bill.
Nice try. As you can guess, this post is in response to the endless Republican attempts to do just what you are objecting to- blame the Bush Administration's God-awful mess on Obama, because the worst results didn't occur until after the election of Obama. In depicting these data by President, I'm fighting the football game on your territory.
I won't give in on this issue for two reasons. First, and least important by far, it just encourages right wing ideologues to go searching for any bogus excuse to push their claims, switching the rules whenever it suits their propagandistic purposes. Second, and far more important is this: The current economic crisis in this country, just like the Great Depression, was caused 100% by Conservatives acting out their economic cant. I don't think you have read my blog very long, but in the past, I have dealt at some length, drawing on sources such as Arthur Schlesinger and John Kenneth Galbraith, with the true origin of the Great Depression in corrupt Republican economic policy, and on how the Bush near-depression occurred because of virtually identical behavior.
There is only one difference between these two events: When the stock market collapsed in 1929, the country had to wait three and a half years to get the economy out of the Republicans' destructive hands, while this time we only had to wait 3 months. If Republicans had had three years to continue treating the nation's condition with the same poison that caused the sickness, we would by now be pretty much just where the country was in 1932.
Well, I had a few hours to kill last night and created the new chart myself. You can find it here. It turns your assertion about Reagan and Bush(es) on its head.
But I see your point, conservatives blame Obama, so using a chart with white house affiliation makes sense. That doesn't mean it's the right story to tell.
We really do live in different worlds, and we won't agree on the causes for our economic troubles. For the Great Depression you cite Galbraith and Schlesinger, I'll cite Shlaes. For 2007-present you say the GOP caused it with their policies, I'll say Obama extended it 2 years with his.
I'll try to dig through your archives and get caught up.