Tuesday, December 25, 2007

All I got for X-mas was a stocking full of debt!

One present none of us want to open this X-mas morning is the one left by President George Bush, Grover Norquist and their neocon friends-the growing national debt.

Federal borrowing from the public has mushroomed since 2001, by 53 percent, to $5.1 trillion. The single biggest cause of this spiraling debt has been the President's gifts to the very wealthiest Americans who double as his campaign financiers-high end tax cuts totaling $1.8 trillion.

From 2002 to 2011, forgone revenue from the cuts will account for 37 percent of the federal budget’s descent into the red, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The neocons war of choice in Iraq and defense spending come next, producing 30 percent of the deterioration, followed by domestic spending at 11 percent.

President Bush has been one of this nation's most fiscally irresponsible Presidents.

This holiday season the richest Americans, including hedge fund and private equity managers who pay a lower tax rate on their million and sometimes billion dollar incomes than most working American pay on theirs, have much to celebrate.

But most American taxpayers, their children and grandchildren will be left with little more than a stocking full of debt, $144,434 per family.

We will have to repay this borrowed money with interest, which means fewer federal dollars to spend on everything else for decades to come, including health care, infrastructure repair, emergency response, chemical plant security and alternative energy.

The New York Times recently ran an excellent editorial on President Bush' fiscally reckless tenure and his recent political posturing. It's worth the read.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Yup neo-cons are borrow and spenders, what is new about that?

Michael Rosen said...

Dave,

Nothing new about that at all.

But it is worth repeating as President Bush and the Republicans who hope to capture the White House posture that they are fiscal conservatives who should be entrusted with the fate of the nation and its economy.