Midterm elections

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

While I can appreciate the charts, and enjoy the detailed explanation of deficits, budget figures and percentages, the general point is that the President is doing, budget wise and spending wise, what he's been criticized for not doing. A President cannot walk in, erase the past, put a budget proposal forth, and start from that point. But up to this point, talk of budget deficits and debt have all been talk, and kicking the can down the road. Essentially, the Republicans really don't want to stop what was the very practice that stalled a recession when Reagan was in office, and that was deficit government spending. Now, we're three decades down the road, and feeling the effects of it, though once again, what comes from talk by Republicans is cheap. Most of the nation's debt is owed to its own finance system, so those who hold it not only have the means to do so, but will also benefit mightily from the interest that gets paid on it. Most of the revenue is already tied to expenses that the President, and essentially the Congress, really have absolutely no control over, unless they want to risk default. It's built on previous administrations and Congresses.

It's pretty clear that the Obama administration has been far more fiscally responsible than virtually any of his predecessors, except Clinton, who did achieve some balance in the budget. But Clinton was still years away from the bubble in the pension system. Bush knew it was coming, and his response was to cut the taxes of the wealthy, shoving the burden on the middle class. Of course, the normal conservative media outlets don't put that information out there.