
" Paying for the tax cuts would require monumental reductions in spending or increases in other taxes. To offset the revenue losses in 2014 would require, for example, a 48 percent reduction in Social Security benefits, a 57 percent cut in Medicare benefits, or a 117 percent increase in corporate taxes." and, "Over the long run, making the tax cuts permanent would cost as much as repairing the shortfalls in the Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance trust funds. Thus, to the extent that Social Security and Medicare are considered major long-term fiscal problems, making the tax cuts permanent should be seen as creating a fiscal problem of equivalent magnitude."while the bush administration and a g.o.p.-dominated congress increased the deficits and did nothing to offset the cost of the tax cuts, some republicans were still able to create a politial issue out of "earmarks," or "pork barrel spending." the earmarks account for about $17.2 billion in federal spending. although this is certainly a lot of money, it only account for .005% of the 2009 federal fiscal budget ($17.2 billion of $3.1 trillion). earmarks were, and are, hardly the cause of the doubling of our national debt under george w. bush.
"As a strategy for reducing Washington’s huge budget deficit, fighting earmarks while promoting tax cuts is incoherent. It ignores the biggest near-term threat to the budget to concentrate on a second-tier problem. It’s like a bank security guard arresting a pickpocket in the lobby while a gang of thieves loots the vault below." and "as a contributor to the deficit, earmarks represent little more than a rounding error compared to Bush’s tax cuts or the long-term cost of entitlements."
this was a recipe for doubling the national debt and squandering an opportunity to balance the budget.
and that's exactly what happened.
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long after bill clinton declared, "the era of big government is over," george w. bush revived it and made it even bigger than ever. and he did this before the 2008 "bail-out."
after being handed a u.s. federal government with three unprecedented years of surpluses, bush policies increased the u.s. national debt from $5.7 trillion to $11+ trillion.
no doubt, bush will be blamed for much more than the u.s. national debt. among many other bush-casualties is the destruction and demise of the "g.o.p./republican" brand:
"We've strayed a long way from the principles the party was founded upon,'' said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.
meanwhile all of us, including our children, and our children's children, will be paying the heavy price for an immensely strayed and failed leadership.
this is the biggest issue that never was.
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