He Only Wants the 'Change' in Your Pocket
Barack Obama campaigned on "change we can believe in." According to his logic, George W. Bush led our country in the wrong direction, and it is up to Obama to change the course and get us back on track.But consider these statistics (courtesy of The Heritage Foundation):
- President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
- President Bush began a string of expensive financial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
- President Bush created a Medicare drug entitlement that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new government health care fund.
- President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation. President Obama would double it.
- President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs. President Obama has already increased this spending by 20 percent.
- President Bush tilted the income tax burden more toward upper-income taxpayers. President Obama would continue that trend.
- President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for an additional $2.6 trillion in public debt), President Obama’s budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016.
The only sharp break President Obama takes away from President Bush is the amount of money he takes from the American people. President Bush reduced taxes by approximately $2 trillion; President Obama has proposed raising taxes by $1.4 trillion. Yet even after taking $1.4 trillion more out of the private sector, Obama’s budget still would double the public debt level to $15.4 trillion. Between 2008 and 2013, the budget will add $5.7 trillion ($48,000 per U.S. household) in new government debt. The annual interest on this debt would nearly equal the entire U.S. defense budget by 2019.All these numbers tell me one thing: The only change Barack Obama cares about is the change that is in your pocket. As Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Brian Riedl puts it, "President Obama has framed his budget as a break from the 'failed policies' of the Bush Administration. Actually, his budget doubles down on President George W. Bush's borrow, spend, and bailout policies."
Change we can believe in, indeed.
Labels: politics
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
Back to Blog