...who blew the budget. The best of Obama's speech yesterday, in my humble opinion:
America’s finances were in great shape by the year 2000. We went from deficit to surplus. America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the Baby Boomers.
But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program — but we didn’t pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts — tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade.
To give you an idea of how much damage this caused to our nation’s checkbook, consider this: In the last decade, if we had simply found a way to pay for the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit, our deficit would currently be at low historical levels in the coming years.
But that’s not what happened. And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place. When I took office, our projected deficit, annually, was more than $1 trillion. On top of that, we faced a terrible financial crisis and a recession that, like most recessions, led us to temporarily borrow even more.
Others, such as Kevin Drum at Mother Jones and Duncan Black at Eschaton, agree with my humble opinion.
Let's not forget.
I really liked this speech myself, and thought it was a big pleasant surprise. I hope he sticks to his guns here and doesn't give away the store again.
ReplyDeleteHe makes a clear moral distinction that the corporate commentariat refuses to see, between a neo-feudal vision of the future cherished by a supremacist right, and a future all the rest of us could imagine living in. He's right to call out the Republican proposals for what they are, not budget balancing, but redistribution of resources from everyone else to the very rich.
Will deeds follow the words? At least Obama spoke the words that all too many politicians seem afraid to speak. Folks around here like to call tax hikes for the rich class warfare. That's fine with me. It's about time the have-nots fought back.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what Warren Buffett said about class warfare. He pointed out that we've already had class warfare for 30 years and his class won.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, thanks for the reminder. I added Buffett's quote to the post on David Vitter's email message.
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