The National Debt Explained in a Road Trip

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http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/
How do the Obama deficits compare with past presidents? And how did the national debt get so big anyway. This video tries to answer those questions by looking at the debt as a road trip and seeing how fast different administrations have been traveling.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• How
• do
• the
• Obama
• deficits
• compare
• with
• past
• presidents?
• And
• how
• did
• national
• debt
• get
• so
• big
• anyway.
• This
• video
• tries
• to
• answer
• those
• questions
• by
• looking
• at
• as
• road
• trip
• and
• seeing
• fast
• different
• administrations
• have
• been
• traveling.

[tak1024]

thats when you get into an accident, right?

[realrockvince]

Yes, the better way of showing the "debt car" is the way that they did it in the film "I.O.U.S.A.", as a percentage of GDP. Then you can really see how FDR fucked it up more than any other president. Of course, Obama will give him a run for his money (no pun intended).

[vSxAppLezZ]

Vote for President Obama 2012!

[fskobic]

it's like comparing buying a plasma TV for $2,000 and investing $15,000 in your education. i'd rather invest in education, because it will earn me money in the future, than spend on a TV which will break down in a few years anyway, and leave me with nothing, even though the initial spending is smaller. metaphorically, bush was buying TVs (from his buddies, nonetheless, and charging you for it), and obama is investing in education for all of you. plus, he's paying the debt the other guys made.

[Germany124]

Ron Paul 2012! Restore America Now!

[circusoflife]

nice idea & metaphor...didn't care for the execution...maybe one should wonder why the car is going so fast now...2012...maybe larger forces at work...

[jessicalilac]

loooooooooooool

[gnanakon]

The sad thing is that many stupid fellow citizens will believe the biased nonsense in this presentation cause they are too stupid to figure things out. Spending exploded under bush but deficits weren't as bad given that tax reciepts were very large given the real estate bubble. Obama came and the recession greatly reduced tax reciepts making deficits explode. Still a republican created problem.

[slimballa93]

Obama is driving faster to clean-up the mess that Reagan, HW, and Bush Jr accumulated. We are figting Republican wars and a Republican made recession. They spent the money, and now we have to spend more money to cover their debt (Iraq/Bush tax cuts) and also our everyday bills (social security/healthcare/veterans benefits/welfare).

[durhamdf]

@realrockvince thank you! And nobody ever discusses the 12 countries who currently have a much larger debt/gdp ratio than the U.S. or labels those countries as "bankrupt" :) People need to understand that the national debt is an important issue and will effect future policy, but the levels of debt we are at today are FAR from unprecedented

[durhamdf]

THe problem with this analogy, although I did enjoy it, is that it doesn't take into consideration the size of our economy at the different points in history where our debt went throught the roof. For instance, during ww2 the debt may not seem as scary as during the Obama administration, but at the time it was 200% of our GDP. During the early 80's our debt/gdp ratio was very simillar to what it is today. The larger the economy, the more debt a country can accumulate and maintain stability