President Bush And The National Debt

Bush Bashes "Tax And Spend" Dems But Never Mentions The Soaring Debt

(CBS)  By CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

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To hear President Bush tell it, he's on the side of the angels when it comes to federal spending.

In his Saturday radio address, he blasted congressional Democrats for pursuing "tax and spend policies," while trumpeting his own commitment to keep taxes low and restrain federal spending.

He said his plan will produce a balanced federal budget by 2012.

But what Mr. Bush didn't mention, and what he almost never mentions, is the National Debt.

With good reason.

On the day he took office, the National Debt stood at this unfathomable number:

$5,727.776.738,304.64

In fiscal shorthand, that's $5.7 trillion dollars. Trillion with a "T."

Six and a half years later, the Bureau of Public Debt tells us the National Debt clocks in at a staggering:

$8,835,268,597,181.95

That's $8.8 trillion – an increase of $3.1 trillion dollars since January 20, 2001. And that amounts to a jump of 54% during Mr. Bush's watch.

If you wanted to pay it off, dividing it equally among the U.S. population (estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 302,103,675), it would come to $29,245.82 for every man, woman and child.

Sot it's not really hard to understand why Mr. Bush almost never mentions it.

The National Debt has gone up more on his watch than under any other president.

That means it took the Federal Government 225 years to accrue $5.5 trillion in debt under 42 U.S. presidents. But under President Bush alone, it has soared another 35.2%.

And the National Debt is not just a big number, it's an expensive one.

This year alone, it costs taxpayers $247.3 billion in interest payments.

It hardly gives the president bragging rights about fiscal discipline.

Yet, in his Saturday radio address, he skewered Democrats for their fiscal plans.

"They've passed a budget that would mean higher taxes for American families and job creators, ignore the need for entitlement reform, and pile on hundreds of billions of dollars in new government spending over the next five years," he said.

He threatened anew to veto any spending bills he considers excessive, and he says he's got the votes to keep his vetoes from being overridden.

"In the House, 147 Republicans have pledged to support fiscal discipline by opposing excessive spending," President Bush said. "These 147 members are more than one-third needed to sustain my veto of any bills that spend too much."

It should be noted that as a percentage of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, the National Debt is 67.9%. That's up from 57.4% the year Pres. Bush took office. It
was in the 67% range some of Bill Clinton's presidency as well – and he actually produced a federal budget surplus in each of the last three years of his term in office.

After World War II, the National Debt was $260-billion dollars (a mere trifle by today's standards), but that amounted to 117% of GDP in 1945.

For that reason, officials at the Office of Management and Budget say the National Debt is no more of a problem now than a decade ago.

The size of the numbers just makes it seem otherwise.

[kyl62654]

If you do the math using the 2008 federal budget of 2.9 trillion dollars, the Bush administration will be spending approximately $92,000 every second! And that's not Monday through Friday between 9 and 5, that's every second of every day of the year! Does anyone, except perhaps the politicians and bureauthugs responsible for controlling this outrageous amount of (fiat) money, honestly believe that this is the "limited government" the founders intended?

[donnie900]

Sorry.. I'll try and act more polite. Fer the Republican party.. *eyeroll*

[space_poet]

I have read every comment here today and I heard a couple good arguments and a couple good ideas, but Donny, you have acted like the biggest jerk I have ever seen on these boards, what a bunch of pathetic dribble. Go take your persecution complex to your local bar and start spouting that ***, nobody on a discussion board needs to be abused like you have. From what you have wrote from the animity of the web would get your face punched in anywhere in real life. Notice i have not called you a single name, just observations. This coming from a real conservative.

[lars008-2009]

IT IS TIME TO DEFEAT FASCIST NAZI ISLAM ONCE AND FOR ALL%u2026

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then U.S. ambassador to France, and John Adams, then American Ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Dey%u2019s ambassador to Britain, in an attempt to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress%u2019 vote of funding. To Congress, these two future presidents later reported the reasons for the Muslims%u2019 hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

%u2026that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Sound familiar?

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison defeated the fascist nazi muslims 200 years ago
And again 100 years ago with Theodore Roosevelt
Tunisia in 1881 by France and Libya in 1911 by Italy. By then most of the Islamic world was under Christian domination. With the Ottoman Empire defeated in WW1, secularist Turkish rebels in 1923 overthrew the last Islamic Caliphate,
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7

[donnie900]

You'll write the biggest blockbuster book in history, Lucifer. And sell it fer 16 bucks a copy! But you'll still be wrong..

[donnie900]

Sha.. "research".. weikopedia? The sophistic punks who suddenly find themselves in charge'a the encyclopedia? Once ya had to put yer name on it.. Once not everything was a politic. Not anymore..

[bluestardad]

donnie900; DO YOU LIKE SUGAR WITH YOUR KOOL AID?

THE WAR ON TERROR IS NOT IN IRAQ AND ISRAELI INTEREST ARE NOT THAT OF AMERICA!


QUIT SMOKING THE TEXAS DICKTATER AND DO SOME RESEARCH THEN POST!

[l8c6]

How many americans ask and expect an honest answer as to who benefits from the $247.3 billion in interest payments. Just go shopping folks cause interest payments benefit the beneficiaries of the privatized United States Federal Treasury of which the most elite families of america own and operate. The old world of royalty has manifested itself in the "new world". Bush's New World Order is the Old World order of Kings and Queens. Oh, but those people benefited from Katrina...they were impoverished to start with, let them eat cake.

[donnie900]

WE'RE ON THE GROUND AND IN THE DIRT WITH THE WAR ON TERROR! GETTING RID OF IT ONCE AND FOR ALL! INSTEAD OF TELLING EVERYBODY WHAT THEY WANNA HEAR! INSTEAD OF ACTING LIKE YOU'RE COOL OR FAMOUS!

AND WE'RE NOT STOPPING NO FREAK'N WAR UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE!

[bluestardad]

BUSH HAS TRIED TO FORCE AMERICA TO SURRENDER ITS NATIONAL INTEREST TO THAT OF THE ISRAELIS AND HIS ARAB BUDDIES!

AMERICA IS COMING BACK ITS PEOPLE ARE FED UP WITH BUSH AND HIS SAND DWELLING NEOCONS!

50 YEARS OF SUPPORTING THESE SAND DWELLING SAVAGES IS ENOUGH!

IF YOU LIKE THE GAS PRICES IN EUROPE OR DUBIA GO THERE AND LIVE!

NOT ONE MORE DIME TO ANYONE IN THE MIDDLE EAST NO MATTER WHAT!

AMERICAN SCHOOL KIDS ARE DOING CAR WASHES FOR SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND WE ARE SENDING MONEY BY THE TONS TO THE SAND DWELLERS!

[prolegomena]

If you really believe that 28% of this country are running it, you must be disabused of this illusion.

Less than 1% of our nation's citizens really run things... the rest are properly manipulated the to ends designed by that less-than-1% who retain power from generation to generation.

If you think otherwise, imagine a political system where corporations can't buy votes through lobbying, term limits really exist, and anyone can make a legitimate bid for political office. Now imagine when you might see such a thing... and why you won't.

The best we can do, is attempt to use our vote and our pocketbooks, to be manipulated as little as possible, and coax the Leviathan forward.

[donnie900]

99.99 percent of the whole world is what ya do. Is what yaz gotta git up off yer ********* azzes.. and do. And .001 percent .. is how yaz comb yer hair. Ya stupid azzzed crazy no good fer nuth'n sweet talk'n sons'a byytches.. *spit*

[donnie900]

THEY PAY 6.50 A GALLON IN EUROPE! COUNT YER BLESSINGS! YA SPOILED CREETONS!

HOW CAN YAZ WEIGHT 400 LBS AND BE STARV'N?! HUH?!

[bareemperor]

President Bu$h was not joking when he uttered the statement: 'Mission Accomplished'...
His oil and defense buddies are now raking in the bucks at a rate previously unseen in history.
Cheney's secret 'Energy Policy' is in full gear. The 'Endless War' is now a reality, and will not stop in our lifetime.
What you and I think about it does not matter.
The 28 percenters are running the show.

[donnie900]

Oh yah .. "lives lost". And its "Dog gone it! I gots to pay more den 1.58 a gallon! Shyyyyit!"

[terrapin78]

2000 GAS WAS 1.58 PER GALLON

Mission Accomplished!!!!!!!

[bluestardad]

2000 GAS WAS 1.58 PER GALLON

AND THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS WERE ALIVE THAT ARE NOT NOW!

TONS OF MONEY IS SENT TO IRAQ!

THERE IS NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION OR HIS KOOL AID DRINKING SUPPORTERS!

[terrapin78]

I have made a deal with my rightwing friends and relatives.
If they stop telling lies about Democrats, I'll stop telling the truth about republicans.
Posted by wfbdem at 09:55 AM : Jun 18, 2007

LOL- I am going to use this one myself (of course I'll give credit to wfbdem!!!!)

[realpatriot1]

Pocessor2,

So, to translate the meaning of the poll you are so proud of-

Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Bush and are also pissed at Congressional Democrats and Republicans who have approved of his policies.

[donnie900]

You liberals **** me off. Armchair quarterbacks. Well I'm a real quarterback, and I'm here to tell yaz that what you say is bullshyyt. That were yer azzzes down here? In the dirt? It'd be worse. It'd be twice as worse.

You guys think that there's something to being cool and debonair. And there ain't. There's just sweat and bare knuckles. And thats the way its always been. But yet, you see this media and you tell yourselves "I can be a new screen name."

"I can be a totally different person then the lieing good fer noth'n son a byyytch that I really am. And sell them my peckkkkersnot."