White House projects record deficit for 2009
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.
President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year."
The faltering economy and $600.00 checks.
Right.
That's the problem.
The average price of a barrel of oil in 2001 was $23.00. A gallon of gas was $1.70.
In July of 2008 the price of a barrel of oil topped $147.00. A gallon of gas was over $4.00.
It's not the $10 BILLION A MONTH we are spending in Iraq! That's not the problem
It's not the Bush tax cuts to his wealthiest pals who need it the least. That's not the problem.
It's not the collapse of the housing market undermined by predatory, unregulated, sub-prime loans.
It's not the instability in the oil markets created by Bush's invasion of Iraq and inflammatory rhetoric towards Iran while completely ignoring the Israeli/Palestinian issue for 8 fucking years. That's not the problem.
No. Those things have nothing to do with the roller coaster nose dive from a $128 billion dollar surplus to a $482 billion dollar deficit.
No, it's our fault for not buying more shit. Shame on us for not becoming poorer to make rich people richer.
Why do we hate America? Why do we want the terrorists to win?
BAD middle class Americans! BAD! We brought this shit on ourselves!
Posts
11 comments:
The rest of the world pretty much looks at us like a dog looks at a new sound.
In my lifetime it's never seemed as if we were in so deep that we couldn't dig ourselves out.
I honestly wonder if we're ever going to recover from this band of fuck-nuts or if the Bush administration represents the socio-political equivalent of an asteroid the size of Mercury.
This shit broke.
stink - you are right. Our shit is broke. For the last 50 years we have been unbreakable and unbeatable.
But now, thanks to the last 8 years of decline, countries like Iran, China and even Venezuela are looking at us and saying "You ain't so tough...I think I can take ya."
And they're right. They can, and we can't stop it.
There was a time when we could have.
But our president pissed that opportunity away like so much frat party keg beer.
All we can do now is wave at India, China, Iran and Venezuela in their ascendancy while we ride the slide to the bottom of the pool of history.
We had the lead, and we fucking blew it.
I tried, dude. I spent and I spent. But, it was to no avail.
You know what makes me laugh? I mean, that sort of laugh that asks the question, "Are you serious?" When I meet people who still rabidly support Bush and his policies...and spout his broken rhetoric.
There's no way to fix that sort of mental disease.
The looming IMF investigation into the American banking system will help, if only to shed the light on what's wrong.
I highly recommend these two articles:
Hedonic Pricing 1
Hedonic Pricing 2
I almost punched my radio when I heard this last night. Thanks for helping me to re-live that moment of rage all over again.
all I know is, the Loc Nar is the sum of all Evil!
nightmare - Loc Nar? From "Heavy Metal"? WTF are you talking about?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the congress hold the power of the purse in our system of checks and balances (or should I say "hot checks" and "negative balances").
Just sayin'. It doesn't seem like the Democratic congress has really stepped up to the plate to do its job (big surprise).
I am sure it was Clinton's economic genius which created this surplus. Too bad he couldn't serve 8 more years. The point is that economy is trailing political changes so Clinton took credit for whatever happened before he took over and presided over the Internet bubble and the following increase in tax revenues. Bush presided over bubble crash and then real estate bubble. any changes made by the next president will show up 2-4 years later when he may or may not be in the office. and then someone else will be voted in to take credit or blame for it. also as Emaw pointed out if congress wanted the war to be over or taxes increased or whatever else, they could have done it years ago.
emaw - you're right. That's why I think that in response to this sort of abuse by a president, we should repeal the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and make it as difficult as possible for a future president to commit our forces to war. We should restore to Congress, and by extension, the electorate, the sole authority to make a Declaration of War. Congress passed the buck in 1973. It's time to take that power back from the president and return it to congress as the constitution intended.
meesha - Under normal circumstance, you may be right. Nut when you start spending $10 billion a month and keep that up for years, when your affressive rhetoric causes oil prices to skyrocket and the stock market to plunge, those are all pretty immediate fucking effects. If I had to divvy up the causes of the deficit, I'd give inherited causes 15%, and the current administrations actions since taking office 85%.
Here is another example of stock market reacting to someone's rhetoric:Greenspan's comments about irrational exuberance and unduly escalating stock prices came after the New York stock exchange had closed, but traders around the world were just starting their day. In Japan's market, the first to open, traders interpreted the Federal Reserve Chairman's comments to mean that stocks in the U.S. market were overvalued and that, in response, the Federal Reserve might raise U.S. interest rates, thus affecting markets everywhere. The Japanese stock market plunged 3.2 percent, its largest drop this year, and the tailspin didn't stop there. Hong Kong's federal reserve chairman market fell almost 3 percent. In Frankfurt, the German market fell 4 percent. In London, traders finished the day losing 2 percent of their market value. And when the New York Stock Exchange opened at 9:30 this morning, the market plunged 145 points, or about 2 percent, within 30 minutes. But by the end of the day, the Dow Industrial Average recovered substantially, regaining 2/3 of its lost value but still down 55 points.
Post a Comment