America’s Debt and the Blame Game

I remember when Reagan was running for President, the national debt was almost a trillion dollars. Reagan said that was much too high. He said if he was elected President, he would get that debt under control. Yet when he left office, the debt stood at $2.8 trillion. The nation’s debt almost tripled during the 8 years of Reagan’s presidency. Was it Reagan’s fault? Maybe not.
When George W. Bush was running for President, the national debt was $5.6 trillion. When he left office, the debt stood at over $10 trillion. The nation’s debt almost doubled during the 8 years of the Bush presidency. Was it Bush’s fault? Maybe not.

Certainly the President does propose a budget, but it is Congress that decides how we are taxed and how tax dollars are spent. After a budget is passed by Congress, the President can only take it or leave it. He can sign the bill into law or veto it. Sometimes the President asks for money but Congress won’t give him the money. And sometimes Congress orders money to be spent on things the President feels are unimportant and unnecessary. For example, it seems every Congress passes funding for defense programs that the Pentagon doesn’t even want. The President doesn’t have a line item veto that would enable him to eliminate pork-barrel spending because Congress won’t give him the authority to do that.

Congress votes for money to be spent. Congress refuses to allow the President to veto pork-barrel spending. So why does the President get all the blame for the debt? It’s called politics.

I was talking to my amigo CyberDave – instant messenger typing, actually – and he sent me a link to this video. It’s kind of funny. It shows President Obama as captain of a slave ship. The slaves (our nation’s children) are rowing the ship. They’re slaves to debt, of course. The video was created by (or for) a Republican Congressman who wants to get re-elected by blaming all our nation’s debt problems on – who else? – the President. It prompted me to ask CyberDave this question: If Congress spends the money, why does the President get the blame? And CyberDave – who, politically speaking, stands just right of the Tea Party – answered that it was simply easier to blame one person than to try to blame hundreds of rats scurrying off the sinking ship. “Why do you think we have a President?” he asked. He’s right, of course. Every four years our nation hires a guy to take all the blame for everything that, in our collective opinion, is wrong with the country. The President is demonized when things go wrong and applauded when things go right, regardless of whether he has any influence over those events.

In 2001 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the nation was on course to pay off its public debt by 2006. Furthermore, the CBO predicted that by the end of September, 2011, the nation should have a $2.3 trillion surplus. But that’s not what happened. Instead of being $2.3 trillion in the black, at the end of 2011 the nation was $10.4 trillion in the red – a $12.7 trillion shift in only 10 years. (That number refers only to publicly-held debt – it does not include intra-governmental debt, such as money the Treasury owes to Medicare and Social Security, which amounted to $4.5 trillion in February 2010.)

So what happened?

Folks, the answer to that question is just not that hard to figure out. The answer is partly Congress (cutting taxes while spending more), partly the last President (two wars, although it was Congress that funded them), partly this President (an attempt to create jobs, and we’re still at war, although again, it was Congress that funded everything) and partly the economy (unemployed people don’t pay income taxes).

Why would Congress want to cut taxes while at the same time it increases spending? Tax cuts are popular with voters. Spending money in a Congressman’s district or a Senator’s state is also popular with voters.

By the way, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “stimulus”) has contributed only 6% to the nation’s debt. And money lent through the TARP program (the “bailout”) has been almost entirely repaid so it contributes only about one fifth of one percent to the debt – essentially 0%. And it did save the auto industry.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) hasn’t affected the debt at this point, but in the future it will either increase the debt or decrease the debt, depending on whether you are talking to a Republican or a Democrat. Well, they say “figures don’t lie, but liars figure.”

If you are serious about solving the debt problem, then find that Congressman who is pointing frantically at the President while screaming, “He did it!  It’s all his fault!” and look at his voting record. Did he vote to reduce taxes while voting to increase spending? That is called “having your cake and eating it, too.” It doesn’t work.

Finally, look at yourself. Are you over 65? Medicare is a budget buster. Did you swallow the hokum that if we reduce Medicare spending in a responsible way, we’ll be throwing granny under the bus? If so, you’re part of the problem. Do you want that high-paying job at the defense plant even though the Pentagon has no use for what you’re making? If so, you’re part of the problem. Do you have plenty of money for all your needs and wants – a beach house, several cars, maybe even a private jet – and yet you insist that your marginal tax rate should remain low? If so, you’re part of the problem.

This nation has a debt problem, and as much fun as it may be for some to blame it all on the President, that won’t fix the problem. The debt got larger under Reagan, it got larger under Bush 1, and it got larger under Bush 2. Now it’s getting larger under Obama. If the debt gets larger regardless of who is President, a liberal or a conservative, then maybe it’s not the President that is the problem. Maybe it’s Congress getting votes the best way they know how: by giving the country guns and butter; by telling voters, “Sure, you can have your cake and eat it, too!  It’s modern times!”

As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”