President Bush has turned the United States economy on its head. When Bush took office in 2001, he inherited a national budget that—for the first time in three decades—had a substantial surplus: $236 billion, a number that had steadily risen each of the previous three years.
But Bush cut that surplus in half his first year in office, down to $128 billion. The next year he was back to deficit spending, $158 billion worth. In 2003 and 2004, Bush set back to back records for deficits, of $378 billion and $413 billion respectively. As of September 20 this year, the national debt stood at $8.9 trillion, up more than 56 percent from the $5.7-trillion debt Bush inherited 2001.
Now, Bush wants to increase war funding to nearly $200 billion, and is asking Congress to once again raise the national credit limit—for the fifth time in his presidency.
As David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times put it, “The federal government maxes out the national credit card and the White House, rather than exercise greater fiscal prudence, simply asks Congress for a higher credit limit.” That means higher taxes and higher interest rates down the road for us. Bush makes the mess; somebody else cleans it up.
Despite this mammoth budget, Bush is not willing to fund programs crucial to the nation’s health. The Food and Drug Administration desperately needs funding for drug monitoring. Since 1998, the number of deaths from prescription medication has nearly tripled.
Bush is also set to veto a children’s healthcare bill because it would cost an additional $35 billion over the next five years. To put that into perspective, the Iraq war currently costs taxpayers about $12 billion a month. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bush is apparently worried that the children’s healthcare bill “could lay the groundwork for government-run national healthcare.” How horrible. What the people really need is a government-sponsored war that costs more than four times in one year what the healthcare bill would cost over five years.
Bush could staunch the fiscal bleeding if he were willing to raise taxes, which he swears he won’t do. But the tax breaks he’s given have largely helped only him and his cronies. Close to 50 percent of Bush’s tax cuts benefit only the top five percent of the economy, according to tables provided by the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice. Bush’s personal taxes were reduced by 14 percent in 2006 because of his cuts, CTJ reports, while Vice President Cheney’s were reduced by 21 percent.
When the Treasury Department suggested closing corporate tax loopholes, Bush considered more tax cuts for corporations to compensate—even though, with current loopholes and tax shelters, the United States has one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates in the developed world, according to the CTJ.
The bottom line is President Bush needs to act with more fiscal responsibility, and he needs to get his priorities straight about who benefits from his spending and his tax cuts. Back in July, Bush told a Nashville audience, “If [Democrats] overspend, or they try to raise your taxes, I’m going to veto their bills.” Considering his economic legacy, that takes cheek.
Last week Bush sidestepped a question about recession by saying, “You need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low.” According to Lazarus, “A transcript shows Bush got grades of 71 and 72 in economics as a college student. That corresponds with a C-minus.”
We must be grading on a curve.
Sources:
- Congressional Budget Office, Office of Budget and Management, “Historical Budget Tables: Revenues, Outlays, Surpluses, Deficits, and Debt Held by the Public, 1962 to 2006,” online as of September 23, 2007.
- Treasury Direct, “The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It: Daily History Search,” online as of September 23, 2007.
- Barnes, Julian, “Budget for War Jumps in 2008,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2007.
- Lazarus, David, “Lack of Urgency on National Debt Is a Scary Stance,” Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2007.
- Maugh, Thomas, “Adverse Drug Reactions Rise Sharply, Study Finds,” Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2007.
- Alonso-Zaldivar, Ricardo, “Bush Ready to Veto Children’s Healthcare Bill,” Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2007.
- Citizens for Tax Justice, “The Bush Tax Cuts: The Latest CTJ Data, March 2007,” http://www.ctj.org/pdf/gwbdata.pdf
- Citizens for Tax Justice, “Bush Tax Cuts Reduced President’s Taxes by 14 Percent, Cheney’s by 21 Percent,” May 3, 2007. Online as of September 23, 2007: http://www.ctj.org/pdf/bushcheney2006taxreturns.pdf
- Baker, Peter, “Bush May Try to Cut Corporate Tax Rates,” Washington Post, August 9, 2007.
- Citizens for Tax Justice, “Bush Gets It Half Right on Corporate Tax Reform,” August 9, 2007. Online as of September 23, 2007: http://www.ctj.org/pdf/bushcorporatetaxproposal.pdf
- Rutenberg, Jim, “Bush Attacks Democrats on Budget,” New York Times, July 20, 2007.
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