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RegisterObama Was Right About Debt In 2006
Obama Was Right About Debt In 2006
by TexasBlue Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:49 pm
Obama Was Right About Debt In 2006
Steve Stanek
Investors Business Daily
Feb. 3, 2011
In 2006 the U.S. government's national debt topped $8 trillion, and a senator from Illinois named Barack Obama called it a "sign of leadership failure." He voted against raising the debt ceiling.
In 2011, by contrast, a U.S. president from Illinois named Barack Obama looks at a national debt that tops $14 trillion and does not see it as a sign of leadership failure.
Instead he characterizes it as necessary to the nation's economic health. He's currently jawboning lawmakers to let the federal government make the national debt even bigger.
Today the debt is nearly as big as the nation's entire gross domestic product. If we took every penny produced by every business and individual in the nation for the entire year, we'd barely pay it off.
The president and his minions warn there will be an economic calamity if the government does not have unfettered access to our future earnings.
"If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history," warned the president's chief economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, as if the only alternatives were to raise the debt ceiling or default.
There's another alternative: Hold spending in check.
What short memories we have. In 1995 President Clinton and his friends in the press vilified Republicans for "shutting down government" by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Yet the government continued to function. The ceiling was eventually lifted, but the showdown had the salutary effect of causing a slowdown of future spending, and Clinton left office with a projected budget surplus.
The supposedly conservative George W. Bush increased federal spending twice as much in his eight years in office as the supposedly liberal Bill Clinton did in his eight years. The national debt nearly doubled during the eight years of Bush's presidency. But that debt already has grown by nearly an additional 40% in the two years of Obama's presidency. Obama makes Bush look like a penny-pincher.
Obama was right in 2006. The $8 trillion national debt signified a failure of leadership. The $14 trillion debt over which he currently presides shows an even bigger failure. The only way to stop government from spending beyond its means is to stop it from taking more from future taxpayers — and the only way to do that is to say no to further increases in the national debt.
Steve Stanek
Investors Business Daily
Feb. 3, 2011
In 2006 the U.S. government's national debt topped $8 trillion, and a senator from Illinois named Barack Obama called it a "sign of leadership failure." He voted against raising the debt ceiling.
In 2011, by contrast, a U.S. president from Illinois named Barack Obama looks at a national debt that tops $14 trillion and does not see it as a sign of leadership failure.
Instead he characterizes it as necessary to the nation's economic health. He's currently jawboning lawmakers to let the federal government make the national debt even bigger.
Today the debt is nearly as big as the nation's entire gross domestic product. If we took every penny produced by every business and individual in the nation for the entire year, we'd barely pay it off.
The president and his minions warn there will be an economic calamity if the government does not have unfettered access to our future earnings.
"If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history," warned the president's chief economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, as if the only alternatives were to raise the debt ceiling or default.
There's another alternative: Hold spending in check.
What short memories we have. In 1995 President Clinton and his friends in the press vilified Republicans for "shutting down government" by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Yet the government continued to function. The ceiling was eventually lifted, but the showdown had the salutary effect of causing a slowdown of future spending, and Clinton left office with a projected budget surplus.
The supposedly conservative George W. Bush increased federal spending twice as much in his eight years in office as the supposedly liberal Bill Clinton did in his eight years. The national debt nearly doubled during the eight years of Bush's presidency. But that debt already has grown by nearly an additional 40% in the two years of Obama's presidency. Obama makes Bush look like a penny-pincher.
Obama was right in 2006. The $8 trillion national debt signified a failure of leadership. The $14 trillion debt over which he currently presides shows an even bigger failure. The only way to stop government from spending beyond its means is to stop it from taking more from future taxpayers — and the only way to do that is to say no to further increases in the national debt.
TexasBlue
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