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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (34195)	7/22/2010 5:48:06 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

Re: "Rather than the Presiden't budgets, need the sum of all of the appropriation bills and add-ons and off-budget stuff too to cover all true spending. The budget leaves our biggest entitlements off-budget and spending on police actions in Iraq and Afghistan out." Actually, that chart (going back to the nineteen SIXTIES!) showed government SPENDING (not 'President's budgets', Presidents were not even listed on the chart). But, as you correctly point out, it did not show "future obligations". (What Social Security or Medicare or Veteran's entitlement programs have promised to pay in future years, or any other future obligations). Rather, it just showed ANNUAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING for each year as it happened and went into the history books. As far as the wars goes though (and you CORRECTLY NOTE that spending for Iraq and Afghanistan was not all on the official US annual budgets --- the difference being BORROWED), until this last decade I believe that ALL of out wars were officially included (the spending for them) in the US budgets. Bush is who broke that tradition of 200+ years.... (Which would make those last couple of years that are color-coded "red" look a bit worse on the chart when you add that spending back into the official budgets.) And --- just me speaking here! --- I'd not call ANYTHING that cost a half a Trillion Dollars or more (or the deaths of so many brave Americans) a "police action". Not Iraq, not Afghanistan, not Korea, not Vietnam. They were (& are) WARS in my book.