To: Alighieri who wrote (16311 ) 4/7/2010 1:44:00 PM From: i-node Read Replies (1) | Respond to The paragraph really makes the point that it's not really these bailouts that we should be concerned with, although they caused lots of consternation, it's the long term financial imbalances of the nation that's the real problem...and that has taken decades to evolve. At the same time, personal income taxes were cut earlier in the decade under the George W. Bush administration. We just don't like to pay taxes, even for unavoidable social services. What's causing the trillion-dollar-plus deficits from fiscal years 2009 to 2011? Despite widespread perceptions that economic stimulus spending and government bailouts of troubled financial institutions are largely behind the ballooning deficits, those temporary programs actually account for only a fraction of the budget shortfall. The primary factors are long-standing imbalances between taxes and spending, plus the deep recession that reduced tax revenue and increased outlays for safety net programs such as unemployment insurance and food stamps. With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spending for national defense has surged about 140% since 2000 -- to $722.1 billion projected in 2010. Government spending for Medicare has gone up even faster in the last decade, to $462.1 billion in 2010.
