The Deficiet cut in half for the third year in a row!

[AJ]

President Bush's tax cuts have generated a strong economy and for the third year in a row the huge tax revenue to the federal government has cut the size of the deficiet in half once again.

YET - "House and Senate Democrats are in the process of crafting a five-year budget resolution that leaves out investor tax-cut extensions for capital gains and dividends. They say they are trying to balance the budget and increase tax revenues. Yet the latest budget report unequivocally shows that these very same investor tax cuts have paid for themselves."

[stefan segal]

WOW...that is a stunning bit of news.

Can you link up to some verification that we too can view of this world class display of gymnastic accounting...or must we attend a repug findraising dinner to hear the real insider stuff?

Facts would be appreciated:)

Stefan

[Bill]

Yes, a link would be nice.

"Good News, If True."

Nothing about it on CNN, must be from FOX.

Now if they could just do something about the trade deficit, the war, health care, education, etc.

[Linkster]

AJ - its ok to put out talking points but not when its not facts
When Bush took office the "deficit" was actually a surplus - of +236 bill
During Bush's first term he drove it down by 800 bill putting it at a deficit of -648 Bill by the end of that first term - since then the production and trade has caused the deficit to come back a little - over the last two years its gone back up to "only" -260 bill in the hole - and had nothing whatsoever to do with tax cuts as those only affect very rich populations of the top 1% - no one else has had the tax cuts that Bush passed take effect yet - so its impossible to have them affect anything yet

[Linkster]

I should add that by adding in those tax cuts and funding for Bush's friends in the war has driven the US debt to a number never before seen - right now it stands at 8.8 trillion and is growing by 1.4 billion every day
THe debt is the only number that matters - the deficit just shows how well we can pay off that debt and as long as we are still in Bush's deficit - it will just keep growing - and China and Saudi Arabia will just keep collecting more US paper which they own most of (unless they decide to call in the debt one of these days and totally destroy the US)

[Moby]

President Bush's tax cuts have generated a strong economy and for the third year in a row the huge tax revenue to the federal government has cut the size of the deficit in half once again.

And the spin doctors convince another believer. Why is cutting the deficit a good thing when he created the deficit to begin with?

"Gee honey, we only took on an extra $25,000 in debt this year. Last year we took on an extra $50,000 in debt. Aren't you happy that we're only bleeding half as bad as last year?"

FACT

1. In the 8 years before Dubya took office the economy grew 80%. Best estimates during his 8 years the economy will grow 40%. Why is that good?

2. Dubya took office and was bringing in more money then he was borrowing. Best estimates are that he's going to double the debt.

3. Greensapn and Bernakie have both made it clear that there is no history of tax cuts ever paying for themselves. Currently there is no data that supports that these will ever pay for themselves.

"Gee honey, I borrowed $200,000 but now we're making $10,000 a more a year."

Borrowing money to make money is OK provided that you eventually have a plan for paying off the borrowed money.

Cutting the rate at which you're going into debt is good but it has nothing to do with paying off your debt.

Why can't his supporters understand this?

http://dcjunkies.com/showthread.php?t=170

I know that you will never come back to post in this thread because you either can NOT or will not look at the actual data.

[Linkster]

Moby - the interesting thing is that the deficit has only been reduced for 2 years - not 3 as most pundits are claiming - and its still not back to where it was before Bush came to office - and there is no way he can get it there with his plans (of course ignoring the US debt completely) :)

At the rate that he is going by the time he leaves office the US debt will be 10 trillion (which as you know is where he's hiding the deficit basically) - that works out to every man, woman and child in the US in debt to the government right now to the tune of $27,000 - since as we all know the government doesnt have any real money - they are just playing with ours
Edited - I see that number of each persons share has risen to $29,217.88 that we all owe to China and Saudi Arabia right now

[Linkster]

One other thing to watch is that congress has set the maximum debt ceiling at $9 Trill - which ought to hit later this year - at which point no one in government can get any additional funding no matter what they do - will be interesting as this is what I believe is really behind the recent Republicans saying they want to wait till Sept to see what happens in Iraq - it hits about the same time and they know that it will be an easy blame to put it on the national debt ceiling :)

[Betty Blowtorch]

Silly me. http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/108/avatarcrazymousepv4.gif

I can't escape the sneaky suspicion that the Bush gang
is using the same kind of creative accounting procedures
that worked so well for Enron...

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/4600/bushthumbsupdh7.jpg

... right up until Enron self-destructed,
wiping out the pensions of its employees
and the life savings of its investors.

[dragonfly5]

It is difficult to believe anything the Bush administration says it true. Remember these are the same folks who said the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms. What they failed to tell us is that these open arms would be holding AK-47's and IED's!

[Linkster]

Fortunately this current administration doesnt have enough of a handle on economics that they can end up screwing it up more than they already have - they go around scaring everyone saying that SS is going to be bankrupt in the future - what they neglect to say is that that would be in the infinite future - SS even with their debt that they have added is still good through the end of this century

The independant (mostly) economics of this country are solid enough to sustain past this presidency, although the debt will be humongous, unless there are any further stupid moves put through congress which is highly doubtful in the next two years with the do-nothings sitting there now

[kres24GT]

No excuse to ever run a deficit.

[Moby]

No excuse to ever run a deficit.
I don't agree with that statement. There are many reasons to run a deficit with World War II being the most obvious. Sometimes borrowing money can be a good thing but the trick is to have a plan for paying back the money and that is what this administration and the Reagan administration did not do.

This type of spend like a drunken sailor and leave it for the next President and my children to pay for is wrong.

Of course, AJ will never comment on this issue when facts are on the table.

[AJ]

a simple fact is this country is at war with terrorists who want to kill us. And wars cost money, as well does extreme natural disasters like Katrina.

Katrina was the single worst natural disaster to EVER hit this country. That is a very good reason to borrow money
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

[Moby]

a simple fact is this country is at war with terrorists who want to kill us. And wars cost money, as well does extreme natural disasters like Katrina.

Katrina was the single worst natural disaster to EVER hit this country. That is a very good reason to borrow money
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
Of course you do know that we're still borrowing way more money then the costs of those two items right? I mean you have looked at the actual numbers haven't you?

You do know that pork spending has increased over 1,000% under this administration? You do know that there is no plan for actually paying down the debt that's being created, right?

Listen to the headlines from Fox News if you wish or bring facts and figures here. The numbers are available and so put up or shut up.

[Linkster]

Moby - I as watching the senators bantering yesterday over the 2008 budget - it was hilarious to watch the republicans put up charts that showed that Bush has put us in more debt than any other president - and try to blame it on hurricanes and terrorists - and then point at their graphs showing that the interest we have to pay on their debt is higher than all of those put together