DEMS FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE

So, it’s time to put away the old refrain, “Democrats aren’t fiscally responsible, and the Republicans are.”  Here’s a graph that puts that lie to bed for good.

This graph demonstrates that when debt to GDP is compared between Democratic Presidents and Republican Presidents that Republicans run up national debt, and Democrats are much more fiscally responsible. The largest increases in gross debt relative to GDP during the last 30 years occurred (in ascending order) under George H.W. Bush with +11.2%, followed by George W. Bush  at +11.9%, and then Ronald Reagan tops the charts at a whopping  +18.5%.

Democratic President Bill Clinton made some major headway in reducing all that Republican debt.  He actually left a surplus for George W. Bush, who could have used the surplus for debt reduction (or even rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure or building high-speed rail for our infrastructure for the future), but decided instead to give tax cuts which primarily benefited the wealthiest Americans.  George W. reversed the debt-reduction progress that Bill Clinton had achieved, and ended up leaving an even higher debt to GDP to the country than his father, Bush 41, did.  And what do we have to show for all these debt-producing tax cuts for the wealthy?  What we did not get was a thriving economy, what we got for all those tax cuts was a weak economy, debilitating debt, and a financial meltdown.

Obama has added to W.’s debt levels, due to the need to temporarily support the country during the financial collapse at the end of Bush’s Administration.  He has said that the stimulus spending (that both Democrats and Republicans said was necessary at the time) would temporarily add to the country’s debt.  President Obama has told us that our national debt is unsustainable and insists that a bi-partisan plan is essential to put the long-term debt in reverse.  This is in contrast to Senate Republicans who recently voted against forming a commission to develop a debt reduction plan, and former V.P. Dick Cheney who famously said, “Deficits don’t matter.”  So much for “Democrats are the party of fiscal irresponsibility.”

Then, there’s “Paygo” —  the Democratic Party’s policy of matching every spending increase with a spending cut elsewhere in the budget.  The President describes it as, “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.”  The Democrats instigated this “pay-as-you-go” budgeting under President Clinton, then the Bush Administration and his Republican Congress let the policy lapse in order to give tax breaks to the rich.  The Dems have just reinstated this policy and President Obama has signed it back into law.

How about this old Conservative canard? — “Obama has lost American jobs, and only Republican “trickle-down” policies of cutting taxes for the wealthy actually creates jobs.” 

To rebut that particular right-wing assertion we went searching on the Internet and discovered another interesting graph last week, which we copied to use in this post.  Although David Plouffe (Obama adviser) beat us to the punch by choosing the same graph to use in e-mails he sent out on Wednesday, we decided to go ahead and include it here anyway.   So, to those of you who have already seen this graph:  please enjoy it again;  and to those who are seeing it for the first time, look it over and be among the informed.

* JOB LOSSES DECREASE DRAMATICALLY IN ONE YEAR *

With this visual it’s hard to maintain that Obama is costing us jobs, and that only Republican’s broad-based tax cuts (which primarily benefit the wealthy) really spur economic growth and job creation.  Once these facts are coupled with the Clinton record we begin to have a clearer picture of reality.  President Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy early in his first term, which was followed by a booming economy and record job growth — despite the dire warnings of Congressional Republicans and right-leaning economists who all predicted financial and economic calamity!

The revisionist history that the right is attempting to make these days is truly astounding.  Now they’re all railing against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and claim that the stimulus it provided to the economy was just all “wasteful, Democratic spending which only piled debt onto our nation.”  (Interesting isn’t it, that NOW they are worried about adding to the debt?)  — See graph above for accurate depiction of which party really piles up debt.    

The majority of Republicans (Congressional and right-leaning economists)  actually advocated for a large economic stimulus package last year.  Remember?  The Democrats passed a $757B package;  the Republicans advocated for a $500B package.  But, somehow they’d like us to think that their $500B stimulus wouldn’t have added to the debt?  Newsweek’s Jon Meachem actually got Republican talk show host, Joe Scarborough (Morning Joe, February 19), to admit that the additional debt levels we’re now experiencing would have been about the same even if John McCain were President.  Facts are facts.

Politics are being played here folks — along with a really healthy dose of revisionist history.  Many critics of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are actually practicing personal revisionist history with their own previous positions.  116 Congressional Republicans have been caught actually taking credit for the stimulus projects in their home states.   These projects were funded by The Recovery Act stimulus that they had voted against in Congress.  These Republicans even bragged that this money would produce jobs in their home states.  Whoa — produce jobs — economic stimulus produces jobs?  They’re on record saying that, so I suppose we should believe them.  They have even gone so far as to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies for these projects and smiling for media photos.  We gotta call “hypocrisy” when it’s this blatant.

The debt levels we’re now experiencing are due to the financial meltdown — much lower revenues are coming in — and the economic stimulus that all agreed needed to be put in place to save the country from another Great Depression.  This additional debt load is necessary and temporary.  

The CBO, Congressional Budget Office which is nonpartisan,  reports that up to 2.4 million jobs exist today that would not have existed without the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Fully one-third of the stimulus was in the form of tax cuts:  95% of working families got tax cuts and small business also saw lower taxes. 

The rest of the package provided funding for small business loans;  transportation construction;  relief for the states which are facing record budget shortfalls;  and billions for the nation’s future in the form of investments in science and technology innovation.

But, this is an election year.  So you don’t hear the right-wing admitting that stimulus was the right thing to do for the economy (which most of them agreed with at the time, including John McCain and Joe Scarborough)— no, what you hear is political posturing for a short-term election year gain.  And, if the citizens of this country wake up and realize how they’ve been deceived, again…the right-wing is toast.