BUSH: Go ahead liberal punks - just try to outspend me!
by
Mike Crane
Every so many years the world sees the rise to power of a man who
rises to the pinnacle of success in some endeavor. In some cases
mankind benefits, sometimes only an elite few benefit.
Thomas Jefferson was just such an event. Thomas Jefferson set the
standard that may never be surpassed in the understanding and
creation of government - man relationships. Generations have
benefited greatly and still are. My grandchildren will benefit from
the legacy of Thomas Jefferson if we do not throw it away in our life
time.
George Washington was just such an event. George Washington
risked
all; fame, fortune and life to create a country in which many
generations would have the opportunity to prosper. Many generations
have already benefited from the work and sacrifice of this man. My
grandchildren will benefit from the legacy of George Washington if
we do not throw it away in our life time.
George W. Bush is just such an event. But this is an event of
a different nature. George W. Bush will go down in history as the
greatest spender of all time. The greatest accumulator of debt for
future generations of all time. Unchecked he may preside over the
accumulation of more debt than the rest of the entire world combined
during his eight years in office.
A record that will hopefully never again
be surpassed by any mortal man.
Many generations of Americans will suffer from this accumulation
of debt, including your grandchildren and mine. There is no excuse
for such fiscal irresponsibility. Please read that again. There is
no excuse for such fiscal irresponsibility.
 Some
have compared his spending habits as spending like a "drunken
sailor." This is so wrong - so misguided - that it should never be
used. I have ancestors who did their tour of duty as "drunken
sailors." I have friends who did their tour of duty as a "drunken
sailor." True - these men wasted their money, maybe they wasted their
children's money - but they did not put my grandchildren in debt!
George W. Bush is putting all of our grandchildren in debt every
day, year after year.
Too many so-called "conservatives" whether they be Republican or
Democrats have cowered before President Bush and groveled to fight
for their place in the feeding trough of public debt on the credit
card in our name. They have accepted their ever larger campaign
contributions from special interests and paid lip service to the
citizens they are sworn to represent.
There is no excuse for such fiscal irresponsibility.
Just how much debt has George W. Bush and our current
crop of politicians accumulated?
I. National debt by Treasury Department (http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm)
09/30/2005
$7,932,709,661,723.50
09/28/2001
$5,807,463,412,200.06
In 4 years - 2.1 Trillion dollars, that is $2,100,000,000,000.00.
The bad news, next year will be just as bad or worse!
II. Trade Deficit (http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/tradnewsrelease.htm)
|
Month
|
2001 Surplus
(Deficit) |
2002 Surplus
(Deficit) |
2003 Surplus
(Deficit) |
2004 Surplus
(Deficit) |
2005 Surplus
(Deficit) |
| January |
(35.2) |
(29.6) |
(41.4) |
(43.1) |
(58.3) |
| February |
(29.4) |
(32.6) |
(40.4) |
(42.1) |
(61.0) |
| March |
(32.7) |
(31.5) |
(43.7) |
(46.0) |
(55.0) |
| April |
(31.5) |
(34.0) |
(42.5) |
(48.3) |
(57.0) |
| May |
(28.0) |
(34.0) |
(40.8) |
(46.0) |
(55.3) |
| June |
(29.5) |
(35.4) |
(40.0) |
(55.8) |
(58.8) |
| July |
(30.1) |
(34.1) |
(40.8) |
(50.1) |
(57.9) |
| August |
(28.4) |
(36.2) |
(40.2) |
(53.5) |
(59.0) |
| September |
(30.8) |
(36.6) |
(41.3) |
(51.6) |
|
| October |
(30.8) |
(35.0) |
(41.5) |
(55.5) |
|
| November
|
(29.7) |
(39.7) |
(40.0) |
(60.3) |
|
| December |
(26.6) |
(43.2) |
(44.0) |
(56.4) |
|
Just adding up the Trade Deficit for the same period 08/2001 -
07/2005 is almost another 2.1 Trillion Dollars,
that is $2,076,800,000,000.00. The bad news, this year is
headed for another George W. Bush trademark - highest trade deficit
for a single year in the history of the world! This year's deficit
has exceeded last year's all time highest deficit in the history of
the world - every month so far!
Without counting the Federal Pension fund shortage, the Social
Security fund shortage, the new corporate Pension fund bailout
shortage and the countless other federal fund shortages, just the
Treasury Debt and Trade Deficit debt amount to just under
4.2 Trillion Dollars in four years.
Over 1 Trillion Dollars a year and counting! That is roughly
$14,000.00 of debt - per man, woman, child and murdered unborn baby
in the entire country. That is above and beyond the taxes collected
and spent.
These are the government's own numbers,
not ours.
These are just plain facts. The facts are very simple and
plain, George W. Bush is presiding over the greatest accumulation of
debt in the history of the world and is the world's all time leading
Big Spender!
But
there is no uproar in Congress from either the Republican or
Democratic Parties. In the last 40 years these same two parties,
each taking their turn as the controlling party have converted our
country from the world's largest creditor nation to the world's
largest debtor nation.
If you believe that such spending and debt accumulation can
continue - then you should be happy with the current crop of
politicians today.
Hopefully you have a better grip on reality. You know - the spending and accumulation of debt can not continue
and must end. You know - from personal experience there are
very few ways to handle excessive debt; paying interest, increasing
taxes, lowering quality of life, inflation and devaluation. You know
- none of these options are positive things. You know - these
are going to be your legacy to your grandchildren if nothing
changes. You know - that such irresponsibility is wrong - dead
wrong.
You also know that nothing will change until you - the
citizens make it change! But the longer we wait, the more that
things will have to change!
We need a return to the Principles upon
which our country was founded.
This will not be an over night change, it will be a long walk
back up the slippery slope of fiscal irresponsibility that we have
been sliding on. But every year that we wait we are digging the hole
deeper, at least a Trillion Dollars, that is $1,000,000,000,000.00 deeper. Now for the bad news - the Democrats are almost as bad.
Going back to the initial two men mentioned, Thomas Jefferson
and George Washington. Both warned us that our greatest enemy would
be a growing central government and George Washington warned us
about the corruption that would come with the abuse of political
parties. Today their warnings, unheeded, have come home to roost.
Way too many in the Republican and Democratic Parties have
abandoned our founding Principles, including "limited government"
and it is hard to see what will break their collusion with special
interests. They have in effect abandoned you - the citizens - and your
future generations. Maybe it is time to abandon them until they
shape up, if they can.
The article below is from a so-called conservative news
source, but all it even suggests is a return to the "undisciplined
spending habits" of the Democrats.
Much, much more is needed. If you agree please read:
Many ask,
"Why a Southern Party …?".
"Nobody
made a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could only do a little."
―
Edmund Burke (1729
- 1797)
Email
This page
Artwork and music from the Georgia Heritage
Council:
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http://www.georgiaheritagecouncil.org/site2/x-files/image-dirty-dubya-outspends.php
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GOP
'Spending
Spree'
Threatens Party's Grip on Power
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
October 05, 2005
(CNSNews.com) -
Eleven years after Americans routed Democrats at the ballot
box over undisciplined spending habits, breaking the party's
monopoly on power in Washington, voters may be leaning toward
a similar punishment of the Republican Party, with the issue
again revolving around the dominant party's spending of
taxpayer dollars.
Even some of the GOP's most loyal activist groups are angry
and frustrated, complaining about a "spending spree" or a
Congress that has gone "whole hog while letting down every
hard-working American taxpayer."
A Cybercast News Service
analysis of federal spending reveals that non-defense
discretionary spending -- which does not include such
mandatory items as Social Security and Medicare -- climbed 79
percent between 1994 and 2005. The Clinton administration's
$259 billion spent on such items in the fiscal year 1994
budget pales in comparison with the $464 billion in similar
expenses by the Bush administration in the fiscal year 2005
budget.
The rate of inflation, meanwhile, as measured by the
consumer price index, rose only 33 percent over the same
time frame.
Republicans have controlled the U.S. House for all of those 11
years and the Senate for the entire time except for a 17-month
stretch in 2001 and 2002. The White House was occupied by
Democratic President Bill Clinton for the first six years of
the Republican congressional majority, but Republican
President George W. Bush has given the GOP a monopoly on power
for most of the last five years.
According to a decades-old popular perception, Republicans
favor spending on the military or "guns," while Democrats
prefer spending on civilian programs or "butter." But Pete
Sepp, vice president of communications for the National
Taxpayers Union, told
Cybercast News Service that the Republican spending
philosophy in Congress "can be summed up in two words: guns
and butter, with
butter getting an even bigger share."
The Republicans are engaged in a "spending spree," according
to Sepp, having adopted the practices of the Democratic
Congress they ousted in 1994.
The 1994 Republican landslide was fueled by then-U.S. Rep.
Newt Gingrich's "Contract
With America," the 10-point GOP agenda that included a
constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. Even
though the amendment never passed, the proposal solidified the
idea that Republicans were more fiscally prudent.
However, Sepp says Republican leaders no longer feel the same
way. "Many Appropriations Committee posts went to senior GOP
lawmakers who had spent years playing the compromise game with
their Democratic colleagues -- which only perpetuated the
'everyone gets a slice of the pie' mentality."
The change in GOP spending, Sepp added, "had to do with the
trappings of incumbency.
"Some Republicans in Congress felt like they had been so
deeply frozen out of power that they would do anything to keep
it, even though the popular base of support that gave them
control of Congress wanted to see real changes in Washington's
spending habits," Sepp said.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), another conservative
group that has frequently sided with Republicans, notes on its
website that "Congress continues to live in its own unreal
world, believing there are no consequences to a steady diet of
pork fat.
"Our elected officials have let themselves go whole hog while
letting down every hard-working American taxpayer," according
to the CAGW web statement.
The federal government had 1,318 pork projects totaling $7.8
billion in 1994, but by 2005, that number had mushroomed to
13,997 projects costing $27.3 billion, CAGW figures show.
Tom Schatz, who heads CAGW, applauded President Bush for his
proposal last year to eliminate 65 programs and reduce
spending in 63 others, but he noted that Congress ended up
abolishing only four programs and cutting spending in 20
others.
"Congress needs to reconsider its dismissive attitude toward
the president's budget cuts," Schatz said. "With the federal
deficit edging back toward record levels, the president's cuts
could help offset hurricane recovery without adding to the
enormous debt burden being left to future generations."
During a White House press conference on Tuesday, President
Bush again called on Congress to cut spending, this time to
help pay for as much hurricane relief as possible.
"I'll work with members of Congress to identify offsets, to
free up money for the reconstruction efforts," Bush said. "I
will ask them to make even deeper reductions in the mandatory
spending programs than are already planned. As Congress
completes action on the 2006 appropriations bills, I call on
members to make real cuts in non-security spending."
The
Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group founded by a deficit
hawk -- Republican U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman of New Hampshire -
believes the policies of Bush and the congressional leadership
represent a "very undisciplined fiscal policy."
"I think where the conservatives fall short is that they won't
put revenues on the table," said Robert Bixby, the coalition's
executive director. "It's unrealistic to think that we can
continue to cut taxes and fund all these new initiatives, and
yet, that seems to be where the White House and the
congressional leadership are headed."
Bixby pointed to what he said were the benefits of divided
government in Washington in the 1990s, when "pay-as-you-go"
budget rules and spending caps were enacted.
"My belief is that the Republican Congress and the Democratic
president helped check each other and kept the deficit under
control. We actually had a surplus for a couple of years" as
the Clinton administration came to a close, Bixby said.
"That led to a push for a big tax cut, and after 9/11, the
purse strings opened up," he added. "Then the budget rules and
caps expired. That 'perfect storm' of events swept away any
feeling of fiscal restraint in Washington, and having been
sprung from the lock box, the politicians have not been
inclined to get back into it."
Budget offsets should include canceling part of the latest
highway spending deal or slowing down the implementation of
the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Sepp said, adding that
Democrats do not appear to pose a viable alternative to the
GOP's spending habits. "Democrats have proposed few options
for reducing federal spending, especially in the vital area of
entitlements," according to Sepp.
"I also think the absolute, concrete lesson from this spending
spree is that institutional mechanisms matter," he noted.
"Budget process reforms and constitutional requirements for a
balanced budget and 'super majorities' for tax hikes may not
sound sexy, but they are absolutely vital for encouraging
those who talk a good game about limited government to
actually follow their words with deeds," Sepp added.
If the GOP fails to take action to resolve the current budget
situation, Bixby said the party could be penalized in the
mid-term congressional elections next year and in the
presidential election of 2008.
"People tend to get mad about deficits when they're mad about
other things as well," Sepp said. "So if people are feeling
edgy about the economy, if people are feeling edgy about the
war and edgy about the price of gasoline, the fact that the
government is $400 billion in deficit and running an $8
trillion debt will become more of an issue because it
reinforces the impression people have that the government is
not managing things very well."
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[About the author] - Mike Crane is
the 3rd vice-chairman of the Southern Party of Georgia and a
candidate for the
Georgia State
Senate. He has been a leading voice for restoring our Founding
Principles, including returning to fiscal responsibility and
"limited government." He proposes a referendum for any and all tax
increases, "sunset clauses" on all government actions that have the
effect of law and establishing FAIR Trade policies as examples of
returning government to the citizens and ending special interest
influence. He can be contacted by email at:
mikecrane@tds.net or by
phone: 706-374-2640.
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