FLASHBACK: In 2001 Address, Bush Said The National Debt Would Be Paid Off In Ten Years

Today, President Obama delivered a budget address during which he introduced his vision for getting the nation's budget back into balance, while also, importantly, noting the reasons for the nation's precarious long-term fiscal position. "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," Obama said.

Indeed, the nation's $14 trillion debt is largely a result of "the cost of two wars, a runaway defense budget, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, taxes on the richest Americans being the lowest in a generation, and a recession caused by the lack of regulation of Wall Street." The Bush administration followed wars with huge regressive tax cuts and an unpaid for prescription drug benefit.

But in his first major address to Congress, President George W. Bush promised that his "responsible" budget would pay off the national debt in ten years: My budget has funded a responsible increase in our ongoing operations. It has funded our Nation's important priorities. It has protected Social Security and Medicare. And our surpluses are big enough that there is still money left over. Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. At the end of those 10 years, we will have paid down all the debt that is available to retire. That is more debt repaid more quickly than has ever been repaid by any nation at any time in history.

Of course, the opposite occurred, with debt held by the public increasing from $3.5 trillion to nearly $6 trillion and gross federal debt going from $5.6 trillion to nearly $10 trillion. In fact, conservatives argued in 2001 that the very existence of a budget surplus was a valid reason to enact large, regressive tax cuts. But this is precisely what happens when you have an administration that believes "deficits don't matter."

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/bush-sotu-debt-flashback/

Category:

News & Politics

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• Bush
• Obama
• budget
• 2001
• debt
• deficit
• deficits
• state of the union

[cmfluteguy]

The money was generated by 8 years of Clinton tax policies.

Bush stole it and gave it to the greediest people in the world.

Now the LIE PIG li CONS want to steal some more and give it to the super rich.

Now science has shown us why. Conservatives have deficient cortical structures in their brains. They are mental defectives. They cannot deal with uncertainty or complexity because of this. That explains why only 6% of our scientists are conservatives.

Certainly LIE PIG li CONS are unfit.

[i2cmars9999]

I HATE Bush, but If this was delivered in Jan 2001, it was before the 9/11 attack. Not that his budget would have paid down the debt (impossible when you do massive tax cuts), but the huge war expense didn't exist.

A RESPONSIBLE person would have, by 2003 at least, proposed to end the cuts, AND to put the war cost ON the budget so it would show 'on the books'.

Maybe the science is right - 'conservatives' have defective brains, can't understand what 'debt' means, can't balance a checkbook.

[tualatin67]

We as a nation will fail if we don't stop spending more than we create. Rome is history repeating itself now

[luvitluvitbaby]

@PerryRubio2012 How can someone be so stupid not to understand basic math! If Obama's new spending only amounts to 1.44 trillion and the debt is over 14 trillion how the fuck is he the BIG SPENDER HERE?

FYI most of the nation's debt is due to the 2 WARS, THE NEW ENTITLEMENT (MEDICARE PART D), and THE BUSH TAX CUTS all unpaid for and passed between 2001-2005! Guess who was in power then asshole!!!

Bush never put the cost for the wars in his budgets until fiscal year 2009! (-1.2 Trillion)

[PerryRubio2012]

@luvitluvitbaby: LOL! "Congress" consists of the House & the Senate you uneducated moron! Republicans only control the House. How could someone be retarded enough to not fk'ing know that?? And never mind that House Republicans haven't added to the debt.

For shit's sake ~ quit playing on YouTube & return to middle-school. Your level of stupidity is disturbing.

[luvitluvitbaby]

@2010GOP using your own logic against you John Boehner and Republicans control congress now! They took office January 2011 but we didn't hit the debt ceiling until May 2011 and it keeps rising!

According to your own logic this means Republicans are spending like CRAZY!!!!!!

[quirkytom1]

WHAT WAS HE SMOKING?

[2010GOP]

@i2cmars9999: Last I checked, Congress controls spending.

Republican Congress under Bush (6 yrs): Debt went from $5.7T to $8.5T (which included massive expenditures after 9/11).

Democrat Congress under Bush (Only 2 yrs): Debt went from $8.5T to $10.7T

Democrats/Obama (Only 2 yrs): $14.4T AND a Quadrupled Deficit.

If Democrats thought Bush tax cuts were so detrimental, why'd they spend more $ in record time than anyone in history on top of it? Talk about a defective brain....

[2010GOP]

The day Bush took office, the national debt was $5.7 Trillion. In this video, he said "$2 Trillion from debt in 10 yrs" ... not "paid off".

And let's not forget that Congress controls the spending. Democrats under Bush spent more in 2 yrs than Republicans did in 6 yrs (which included massive expenditures after 9/11).

[expatted]

Then he went on a spending spree.

[BigBrotherHal2001]

"We owe it to our children and grand children to act now... " -this clown should have been impeached for such a big fat lie.

[sparkyj99]

@i2cmars9999 ~~> It wouldn't have mattered because the wars were on the credit card and off the budget... They were funded by Exicutive Orders and budget suplimentals... BO put them on the budget and that is why the reps keep saying he has spent trillions of dollars...

Conservitives do have a problem... Conserve or Hoard... Hoarding is a big problem... They even have reality shows about it... Its pretty discusting...