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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (6209)	3/16/2009 11:24:30 PM
From: Hawkmoon	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

Bush increased our national debt by $5 trillion. Is that a small number? Last I checked, it was an appallingly high number. And given that the GOP tries to sell themselves as fiscal conservative, it is downright shameful. Buddy, only 10% of that went to Iraq. I ask again, where did the other $4.5 Trillion go? Entitlements continue to be funded and budgets increased. How much of a factor was that in increasing the deficit? How about declining tax revenue in the post-internet bubble, post-9/11 environment which was only beginning to recover by 2008? en.wikipedia.org Historically speaking, defense spending has only recently returned to pre-Clinton levels (when he cut the defense budget 40% across the board). en.wikipedia.org Now take a look at how Obama's administration is going to impact the deficit, all within the first year: en.wikipedia.org There's no way to assert that any other President could have avoided seeing that deficit increase over those 8 years, regardless of Iraq and Afghanistan, given the increases in Social Security and entitlements. And what Obama has done in his first 50 days in office absolutely dwarfs anything Bush did in his first year. But here's a little tidbit for you to ponder. EVEN WITH that Federal debt, interest rates are COMFORTABLY SITTING at sub-zero percent on short term and less than 3% on 10 years T-bills.. That suggests there is more demand for government debt than the Treasury can meet. And if you doubt that, look at money market rates. There's far too much money out there looking for a safe port in the storm and it's resulted in tremendous naked short selling of T-bills in order to meet that demand: ipsnews.net Hawk