Tuesday, July 26, 2011

What have Democrats done to fix America’s debt crisis

Obama has an Earmark problem

Other than Blaming Bush (Democrat’s natural fallback position), what have Democrats actually done to fix the debt crisis? Since gaining control of both houses of Congress in January of 2007 the Democrat Congressional majority promised:

1. Fiscal restraint, adherence to pay-as-you- go (PAYGO) rules, and reform of pork barrel projects. They have broken all of these promises.
2. Congress has voted to raise taxes by $98 billion over the next decade and enacted a budget resolution that would raise taxes by approximately $2.7 trillion.
3. Despite their PAYGO pledge, congressional Democrats have used gimmicks and loopholes to add $179 billion in entitlement spending, offset by only $98 billion in new taxes. Discretionary spending is set to exceed President Bush’s budget request by $275 billion over 10 years.
4. Despite pledging to halve the number of earmarks to 6,746, Congress has included 11,351 in the spending bills.

The Blue Dog Democrats pledged to work for deficit reduction but have voted almost unanimously to raise taxes, increase spending, and expand the budget deficit. (source)

Since gaining the presidency in 2009 Democrat president Barry Hussein Soetoro promised to end the wasteful spending in Washington called “earmarks” signaling an attempt to rein in spending and avert the inevitable fiscal crisis government spending was creating. (see 2:18min video)




In 2009, millions in tax-payer dollars went to tattoo removal programs, peanut research and water taxi services on Pleasure Beach.

So who got millions in 2010?
Early in his presidency, President Obama publicly urged Congress to cut wasteful spending. However, by March 2009, Congress had presented him with a $410 billion stimulus bill that included $7.7 billion in pork -- and he signed it.

So what qualifies as pork spending? Also called earmarks, this type of spending is inserted into generally non-related bills as either an award or incentive for political support from constituents and cohorts. The Oxford English Dictionary distinguishes pork barrel spending from normal appropriation spending as "projects designed to please... and win votes." The term predates the Civil War, when barrels of salt pork were given as rewards for good behavior-- Casey Scudder (source)

So called fiscal responsibility by Democrats was offset by massive Democrat spending on a Democrat partisan social agenda. A social agenda Democrats wanted for over 50 years.

Moreover, one, which Democrats felt if not put in place immediately they might never have the opportunity of a Democrat, controlled Congress combined with a Democrat Presidency to implement their Progressive socialist agenda. Thus, Democrats passed by Party line vote, and the Democrat President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)or Obamacare

Obamacare is a trillion-dollar budget buster and debt increaser. (source)

The outrage of millions of taxpayers following the $700 billion bank bailout and the $787 billion stimulus bill did not stop Congress from passing and President Obama from signing a bloated $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Act in March. With the subsequent approval of the President’s budget, the national debt will triple over the next 10 years.—Citizens Against Government Waste (source)
(see 1:26min video)




Despite relative silence with respect to taxes on the campaign trail, the Democratic congressional majority quickly enacted a budget resolution calling for one of the largest tax increases in history. Under current tax rates, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects $14.107 trillion in tax [increases] between 2008 and 2012. Yet the congressional budget resolution calls for collecting $14.828 trillion -- an increase of $721 billion.-- Published on October 30, 2007 by Brian Riedl (source)

DEMOCRAT SPENDING

Adopting the President’s Budget. In his first 100 days in office, the President has
signed a $74-billion increase in the government’s already unsustainable rate of
entitlement spending; a $787-billion “stimulus” bill; and a $406.7-billion omnibus, which
increased nondefense appropriations by 10 percent just for this year, and included nearly9,000 earmarks the administration dismissed as “last year’s business.” On the first day of spring, the Congressional Budget Office [CBO] released an updated projection indicating the deficit for the current year (fiscal year 2009) had increased by more than $500 billion– to $1.7 trillion. Now comes the Democrats’ budget, with its huge increases in spending,taxes, deficits, and debt.

• Total Spending. Outlays total $3.555 trillion in fiscal year 2010. As a share of the
economy, spending never falls below 22 percent of gross domestic product [GDP]. Even
with the full costs of the war, Katrina, and Medicare prescription drug coverage,
spending during the Bush administration averaged 19.9 percent of GDP – and never
exceeded 21 percent of GDP.
• Tax Increases. Taxes increase by $1.5 trillion over 10 years. These include higher taxes
on families, small businesses, and workers.
• Deficits. Red ink totals $1.233 trillion in 2010. The budget proposes record budget
deficits in nominal dollars. Deficits never fall below $500 billion.
• Debt. Debt held by the public increases by nearly $2 trillion this year, and rises to more than two-thirds as a share of the economy by 2014. The European Union requires its
member countries to keep debt below 60 percent of GDP.-- THE CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. CON. RES. 13 THE OBAMA PLAN FOR SPENDING, TAXES, AND DEBT
28 April 2009 (source)

What have Democrats done to fix the U.S. debt situation? Nothing! In fact, they’ve made our situation worse by their puerile behavior, uncontrolled spending and finger pointing at Republicans when in fact had the President kept his campaign promises we would not be facing this fiscal crisis right now. (see previous post)

We are not facing consequences from irresponsible governments of the past, as the president would have us to believe. Everyone who should be held responsible for the current fiscal crisis is currently in office. They are Democrats and they can be voted out in November of 2012.

The president, his agenda, his policies and his Party has made the financial crisis worse, Democrats have made everything worse, far worse!