Alternate headlines: “Timelines of a spending spree”, or, “$4 trillion later; how we got here from there”. But Paul Ryan calls it what it is, “A Brief History of President Obama’s Fiscal Record”; though in my opinion he left out the word “dismal” between “Fiscal” and “Record”, most likely in the name of politeness. It can be found at this page on the House Budget Committee’s website.
It really is a definitive timeline of not only each major spending bill signed by the O!ministration, but also of each major pronouncement made by the President that was related to, or was meant to influence, fiscal issues; complete through his latest attempts to duck his responsibility to lead the debt ceiling increase debate. Each entry is has links that pertain to that episode, as well as a running tally on the amount of debt held by the American public listed as a sort-of footnote (the amount of debt held by the public is the portion of the total national debt the public owns in the form of securities and bonds, and does not include foreign holdings, individual or sovereign, or Federal Reserve bank holdings-so don’t be confused because it is less than the $14+ trillion cited in the press).
With the debt ceiling negotiations reaching a critical phase, and ramping up to a frantic pace, their will be mud slinging and finger pointing a plenty; indeed, I’ve already had my fill of hearing how all our problems are due to the “Bush tax cuts”, medicare part D, and two “unfunded wars of conquest” (the characterization of the war on terror most popular among the far-left)-when the most these things could have added over the last 10 years is on the order of 2.5 trillion on the outside. But I’ve expected the “I blame BOOOOSH!” brigade to go into action for a while now.
So do what I do; arm yourself with stubborn facts and inconvenient truths, so you can refute this hyperbole with the sober fact that Mr. Obama has increased the national debt by nearly the same amount as Mr. Bush, but sadly has done so in 1/4 of the time. As we often say, read the whole thing. And in this case, bookmark it for future use.
Spendin Cheese-yours that is
What are your impressions of this recounting? Do you think it a helpful debating tool?
- Excited
- Angry
- Not as Angry
- Bored
- Indifferent
- Sad
