Budget smoke screen

It has been nearly impossible to comprehend where these sudden concerns about the deficit came from. Why? Because the people doing the most complaining were in charge when it all happened.

February 3, 2008
Updated: February 11, 2008
Q:
During the Clinton administration was the federal budget balanced? Was the federal deficit erased?

A:
Yes to both questions, whether you count Social Security or not.
This chart, based on historical figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, shows the total deficit or surplus for each fiscal year from 1990 through 2006. Keep in mind that fiscal years begin Oct. 1, so the first year that can be counted as a Clinton year is fiscal 1994. The appropriations bills for fiscal years 1990 through 1993 were signed by Bill Clinton's predecessor, George H.W. Bush. Fiscal 2002 is the first for which President George W. Bush signed the appropriations bills, and the first to show the effect of his tax cuts.



The Clinton years showed the effects of a large tax increase that Clinton pushed through in his first year, and that Republicans incorrectly claim is the "largest tax increase in history." It fell almost exclusively on upper-income taxpayers. Clinton's fiscal 1994 budget also contained some spending restraints. An equally if not more powerful influence was the booming economy and huge gains in the stock markets, the so-called dot-com bubble, which brought in hundreds of millions in unanticipated tax revenue from taxes on capital gains and rising salaries.
Clinton administration was the federal budget balanced

The economy was good during the Clinton years so when the GOP wanted to take control, they went after our personal lives, including the President's personal life. It was all about morals and family values.

Public opinion went the other way and wanted government out of our personal lives, including Clinton's.

They kept it up by going after gay people. Again, public opinion went the other way. They lost that battle too.

With Bush and 9-11, it was then all about security and no money was too much to spend on defense contractors. They used our emotional ties to the troops to get all the money they wanted to spend, but as we can see now, they didn't care about where the money went.

Big Bucks, Little Oversight, Big Trouble
Posted by Mark Thompson Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Much of the billions of dollars U.S. taxpayers are spending rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq is likely being wasted because no one is ensuring the contractors involved are doing a good job. That's the bottom line in Monday's report from the congressionally-mandated Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read more:
Big Bucks, Little Oversight, Big Trouble

When the economy suffered, first they blamed 9-11, told citizens to just go shopping to help the economy, but never once thought about what they needed to do to fix the problems other than tax breaks for the rich. It was never about asking us to do anything to really support the troops anymore than it was about paying for the wars they thought were all so important to fight. Tax cuts for the rich kept going on no matter what was being done. No one in the GOP said they needed to pay for Iraq or Afghanistan. Borrowing money was fine with them. That is, until the troops were coming home wounded and the VA budget was nowhere near where it should have been.

While Democrats lacked control, they tried to get the GOP to pay attention to all of this, but they said they couldn't afford to increase the VA because there were two wars to "pay for" and not enough money to go around.

Again, as we can see in the chart, paying contractors was another story.

US Federal Budget

Bush
$68.4 billion (2.62%) - Veterans' benefits 2006
$72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits 2007
$39.4 billion (+18.7%) - Department of Veterans Affairs 2008
$44.8 billion - United States Department of Veterans Affairs 2009
Obama
$52.5 billion (+10.3%) – Department of Veterans Affairs 2010

With two wars producing more veterans and disabled veterans, they let the budget drop instead of increase. With more older veterans needing to be taken care of, they didn't think about them either.

Now we have these same people saying that we cannot pass on this debt to our kids years from now at the same time they want to take food and shelter away from families today. It is almost as if they want us to believe they just got to Washington and had nothing to do with anything.
THE SHOCK DOCTRINE by Naomi Klein hit the nail on the head and this is all about causing fear to take control and get rid of what they don't want. It's all a smoke screen.