Obama to Bush: My Month Beats Your Year

…when it comes to federal deficit spending that is, with February's coming in at $220 billion vs. a yearly deficit for 2007 of $161 billion. This is 14 percent higher than the previous monthly record deficit, set just last February.

The news via CentristNet. (Yes, I know personifying responsibility for the deficit in the president's hands alone is misleading, and that Bush helped in many ways to bake the cake of this deficit. Still, when someone seeks the job of head of state, he should be prepared to take the public fall for its excesses.)

And history-making deficits should be with us for a long time to come, as Veronique de Rugy explained in Reason magazine's June 2009 issue.

Comments

[Zim Bob]

February 2010 may not have the record for largest monthly deficit in American history for very long.

The deficits'll get much larger, if I have my way.

[Rich]

Must confess I initially read the headline as My *Mouth* Beats Your Year.

[Pronounced Wrong]

From the headline, I was actually expecting it to be something on the order of "0's popularity is dropping quicker in a month than W's did in a year" or something like that.

Which it is, by the way, though maybe not quite that fast (just yet).

[Mike Tyson]

Must confess I initially read the headline as My *Mouth* Eats Your Ear.

[Jeffersonian]

Does this road to serfdom have any rest stops on it?

[Binky]

Yes, but you might not want to go in there.

[poop slinger]

Umm . . . I didn't authorize any photos of my basement toilet.

[shit,I was eating!]

How's that even possible?

[sage]

My guess is you need to be really tall.

[shit,I was eating!|]

Tall with a wide stance. I guess it was a politician.

[JW]

Yes, but oddly, they look exactly as they do in New Jersey.

"Can we *please* not stop at the Richard Nixon Rest Stop? The prices are good but the shelves are mostly empty and there's always a long line at the gas pumps. At least at the John Maynard Keynes stop, they spend like there's no tomorrow."

[jayrad]

And at the Maynard James Keenan rest stop, you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Bikini Bandits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzKVFPeK7NQ

[Paul in NJ]

There ARE no rest stops in New Jersey unless you're on a toll road. (Ain't no truck stops either.) If you gotta go, you either hold it until you leave the Garden State, or risk getting ticketed for peeing behind a tree.

[dave b.]

Ticketed and placed on the sex offender registry.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama inherited the month of February from the previous administration.

[Rewrite]

Racist! February is Black History Month and is not inheritable.

[NaSa]

Forget February for now.. Let's talk about March Madness.. Can POTUS correctly pick the Final Four and the ultimate winner ?

[Episiarch]

I keep telling myself "this shit has to stop at some point; it has slow down and taper off". But it doesn't. It just keeps getting worse.

[JW]

USA! USA! USA!

[Episiarch]

AMERICA, FUCK YEAH

[Pat Buchanan]

Derp they took our jobzzz derp!

[Walter Sobchak]

"It just keeps getting worse."

Just a few years ago Uganda was a prosperous country. And Uganda is not as bad as North Korea. It is a long way down.

[Middleagedlibertylover]

I'm trying desperately to rationalize the ideals this man holds and I must confess I just can't do it. Over and again, I reach the same conclusion. The President of the United States of America is trying to collapse the economy in order for the government to take the reigns fully. I can't believe I just typed that, but these policies just keep leading my thoughts to that end. I'm sure most people here realize that even with the most stringent oversight, people, businesses and even large corporations get stung with the reality of failure. Get up and move forward. Government has no authority or responsibility to ensure anyone's economic security, especially with the citizen's money. It's so simple, so obvious, but it's insisted time and again that we need "protection". We need FREEDOM, to succeed, to fail, to be average, mostly just to be...

[Mike M.]

The President of the United States of America is trying to collapse the economy in order for the government to take the reigns fully. I can't believe I just typed that, but these policies just keep leading my thoughts to that end.

It's a good thing that people are letting go of their cognitive dissonance and embracing reality, no matter how painful it might be, because emotion should never be the substitute for analyzing the evidence.

This strategy was actually defined decades ago by Cloward and Piven, and the Cloward-Piven strategy is indeed now being implemented on a national scale.

[Ann NY]

I'm with you on this.

[Ken Shultz]

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "race to the bottom".

Somehow it seems like there should be a jab at public employee unions in there somewhere...

Sometimes, talking about how I hate the government for squandering my future earnings to bail out Wall Street investors or stimulus, it just seems like misplaced anger. I mean, if I got mugged, it wouldn't make me feel much better if I found out later that the bastard didn't use my money to buy booze... Really, it isn't what they spend it on that makes me so mad.

It's the getting mugged part.

I mean, it's passed the point where I've stopped expecting anybody in either party to cut it out with the daily mugging already. I'd be happy if either one of 'em would just have a little heart, you know?

Why do they have to be so damn mean? Both parties, they're like the guys that made "Bumfights", in a way, you know? They must laugh their asses off at all the money they're getting for makin' us fight.

And we keep comin' back to do it again... I don't understand why anybody votes for anyone in either party anymore.

[Middleagedlibertylover]

The population as a whole has let this happen. Not so long ago, people would pay attention to what was happening in government. Try bringing up the deficit with someone now, and they can't even tell you what it is. The issues of the day are fiction stories on the pages of crackpot newspapers and most people are too busy, lazy, apathetic or stupid to find any source of reason outside the MSM. More people do now, but not anywhere near enough. Couple that, with the fact that while a lot of people are fiscally conservative by nature, the overwhelming tendency is for them to be an amateur social engineer postulating on how everyone should behave. The only phrase that comes to mind is "This Sucks!"

[joe blow]

Not so long ago, people would pay attention to what was happening in government. Try bringing up the deficit with someone now, and they can't even tell you what it is.

In people's defense it's hard to keep track with monthly increases like this.

[Stockholm syndrome]

My husband only beats me because he loves me.

[Middleagedlibertylover]

That about sums it up.

[AA]

Battered voter syndrome.

[TrickyVic]

Dumbass voter syndrome is more like it.

[AA]

I liked the mugged analogy. Although I wouldn't mind if the government spent some of our money on booze for me...

[JW]

From today's WaPo:

Spending has to drop to 2006 levels. 2006!!! You can see the rape gangs forming on the horizon as we speak. Children are already being roasted for food!

Please control your dry heaves as you read this paen to the salad days of 2009.

[JW]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....03895.html

Grumblegrumble..sugarfree...grumble

[robc]

Was that on the editorial page or a news article. Any reporter writing that piece of shit should be fired immediately.

[JW]

Metro section. Front page, lead story, above the fold.

Yes, I don't know why I still get delivery of that paper either. Old habits and all...

[wylie]

I bet you have a fireplace. If there's a handier firestarter than newspaper...well, let me know and I'll switch.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

birch bark

provided, of course, you have a birch tree.

[Middleagedlibertylover]

Wow! Where do these people come from? How is this drivel printed? Common sense be damned. I decree, the enemy of good is no longer perfect (it has since died due to lack of health insurance) it is progressivism.

[Byron]

With 72 percent of its patients on Medicaid, the maternity wing might have to close if the program is cut further,

What. The. Fuck.

"But I think government has certain responsibilities to citizens. One, I believe, is to improve quality of life."

And this sums up the root of the problem.

[Jeffersonian]

Can you just picture the Road-Warrior-esque type of society we'd be if we turned back the clock to such barbaric times?

[Aunty Entity]

I'd make you my bitch

[jayrad]

For the longest time I thought her name was Aunty Bellum. Don't know where I got that from.

[are you from the]

south?

[SIV]

Dear God! I thought you were using typical libertarian hyperbole but civilization is collapsing and the taboos that assure human decency have fallen.

The House has recommended halving state funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts next year and abolishing all funding the following year, a cut that would affect a variety of cultural programs, including Signature Theatre in Arlington County, the Art League in Alexandria and the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. The House also suggested eliminating funding for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, which sponsors the Virginia Festival of the Book among other programs.

Pass me a roasted baby leg, all this rape works up an appetite.

[Hugh Akston]

Still, when someone seeks the job of head of state, he should be prepared to take the public fall for its excesses.

Speaking of, wasn't there some sort of French ceremony whereby they removed the head of state?

[B. H. Obama]

Lol! You slay me, Akston, you really do.

[Do I get]

to eat cake?

[Ken Shultz]

I mean, seriously, you gotta be out of your friggin' mind to propose a $950 billion healthcare bill at this point in the economic cycle.

You have to be outta your mind or just have no freakin' clue. ...I suspect it's the latter, but either way, we're talkin' gross incompetence proposing something like that right now.

$950 billion over ten years--that's the White House estimate! If that isn't reason enough alone to reject...

...whatever! Just put it on my tab.

[your tab is open?]

I'll have a Margarita Martini with 3 olives.

[gabs]

travel

[Obama Administration]

(fingers in ears) Lalalalalalalalalala!

[NaSa]

Its more like La la la La Hey Hey Hey Na Na Na Na.. He is a White Sox fan.

[wylie]

I don't understand why anybody votes for anyone in either party anymore.

I've been wondering the same thing ever since GiantDouche VS TurdSandwich on Southpark.

Oh sorry, i forgot, Southpark is a comedy so we shouldn't take serious anything they say. Unlike the cable news networks, paragons of virtue that they are.

[LibertyBill]

I needed a good laugh at the start of the day

[John]

The 2007 deficit was only $161 billion? I didn't realize that. From reading the comment section on here, I assumed it was somewhere near a couple of trillion. Libertarians all claim that Bush was just as bad or worse than Obama about deficits. This just can't be true.

[John Thacker]

Well, it should've been better than that considering it was the top of the economic cycle. But the shitty part of Bush's spending increase all occurred in 2001-2002. After that the record wasn't so bad.

The depressing part is that, well, the Republicans actually did well at the polls after spending so much, and did much worse when they actually practiced some relative fiscal restraint. There are other possible explanations, though. (Like the hangover from the spending finally hitting.)

[meerdahl]

2006 spending levels? oh the humanity!

take into account inflation and population growth, let's say the current budget equals 2003 or 2004 spending levels in real, per capita, comparable terms

was 2003 such a nightmare for the people of virginia? or any other state for that matter?

[TrickyVic]

""Libertarians all claim that Bush was just as bad or worse than Obama about deficits.""

Drink some coffee, look that over again, and realize how false it is.

Pretty much everyone here has noted Obama has tripled Bush's deficit.

[John Thacker]

Although a lot of people didn't think that was possible.

Bush's spending record was much worse in 2001-2002 or 2003. It got better after that, but of course it was growing from a higher base at that point.

[John Thacker]

It's not entirely fair to compare different points in the economic cycle, but the really scary part is that in projections even ten years from now, with tons of growth expected, at the middle or top of the economic cycle-- the deficits will still be worse than the Bush deficits, even the larger Bush deficits during the 2000-02 recession.

[Ken]

People might want to recall that the 2007 budget was the last Republican budget.

[roystgnr]

I'm afraid these numbers are nonsense. And if you got suckered into believing the Bush administration's claims about what the deficit was, I'm afraid to tell you what the truth behind "we don't torture" and "we always get a warrant" is.

See here: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/.....histo5.htm

Notice the federal debt, going up by a full trillion dollars from 2007-08, and by more than half a trillion in every year since 2002? Those are the numbers you get when you add up all the borrowed money the government actually spends, whether it's spent loudly in a "low-deficit" budget or just in some "special appropriations" bill to fund one war or another.

Obama's been worse than Bush in this regard, yes, but not 12 times worse.

[DoDoGuRu]

"Obama's been worse than Bush in this regard, yes, but not 12 times worse."

Whew, that's a relief!

[Walter Sobchak]

All of this is ancient history. 1Kgs.12:1-19 summarized:

[After Solomon died] Rehoboam went to Shechem [to be made] king ... and all the assembly of Israel came and said to him: "Your father, Solomon, made our yoke heavy. We beg you lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke upon us, and we will serve you."

... But [Rehoboam] forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him ... [who said] "Thus shall you speak to this people ... 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins. My father laid upon you a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.'"

... Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones ... So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

[More Ancient History]

I Samuel 8:10-18:

Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day."

Only ten percent!? We should be so fortunate. Hey, God, can we have King David back? Heck, even King Saul didn't do so bad as these fools we've had whoring us out to their gods of plastic and green...

[Doc Merlin]

Sigh, I guess its our job to fix the problem now.

[Obama is the Messiah]

Repent of your heresy and bow down before the one! Give him your money and your guns! Give him a country to make his wife proud!!!
Lord Barry, heal the bitter ones!

[malclave]

Way to go, Obama! Just imagine what he could have done with a longer month!

Yes We Can!

[jgreene]

Let's not make any more excuses for the Marxist ideologue in the White House as he spends us into BANKRUPTCY. Time to throw out the Democrats from Congress in 2010 and 2012 and sweep the Progressive Marxists from the White House in 2012.

Enough is enough. After one year in office Obama has proven what many of us knew about him - he is socialist...Progressive...Marxist...and he will be a one term President.

The LAST socialist pretending to be other than what he is.

[Eagle's Dominion]

Hell.... I don't think Bush got to count the military War expenditures did he?