RSSThe Next President Will be a Slave to Bush Administration Fiscal Woes
The next president will be a slave to Bush administration fiscal woes
By Jack Z. Smith
jzsmith@star-telegram.com
The next president, whether it be Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, will be in handcuffs as he parades into the White House after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
He won’t be physically manacled. But he will be fiscally handcuffed from Day One as a result of the ideologically driven foolishness and sloppy excesses of President George W. Bush’s administration.
The White House is projecting a record federal budget deficit of $482 billion for the 2009 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Former Bush administration Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill predicts a “mind-boggling number… upward of $500 billion.”
For the current fiscal year, the White House forecasts a $389 billion deficit.
Longtime budget hawk and former presidential candidate Ross Perot Sr. of Dallas notes that the national debt of nearly $9.6 trillion “is increasing by over one billion dollars every day.”
Perot’s observation is on a video on his new Web site, www.perotcharts.com. On it, he also offers this sobering observation: “We are leaving our children and grandchildren with a burden they cannot possibly manage.”
That is Bush’s sad legacy.
As a father and grandfather, it rankles me.
Oh, but Bush — the nation’s first MBA president, mind you — had such grand plans! His tax cuts for the rich would foster economic growth and job creation, resulting in more tax revenues, and everything would be rosy. The string of budget surpluses rung up by the Clinton administration would continue unabated.
But look where we are in the twilight of Bush’s tenure. America has experienced seven straight months of job losses. The housing crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. Energy and food prices have soared. An almost-anything-goes regulatory approach has produced an epidemic of bad subprime loans, spiraling credit-card debt and a tsunami of property foreclosures and bankruptcy filings.
The wages of many Americans aren’t keeping up with inflation. Millions of middle-class households from Florida to California have seen their net worth (assets minus liabilities) wither as a result of falling home values, higher personal debt and a shrinking 401(k) hammered by a declining stock market.
Republicans’ once-logical claim to being the party of small government has been eroded by Bush’s presidency. While the Bush tax cuts continue to restrict government revenues, spending has soared for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare (including a costly new prescription drug program), defense, education and other departments.
Interest payments on the national debt totaled an enormous $377.3 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year — the fourth-highest spending category in the budget.
Meanwhile, Bush and Congress have failed to address the scary long-term funding shortfalls facing Social Security and Medicare.
That’s the biggest reason for Perot lamenting about “leaving our children and grandchildren with a burden they cannot possibly manage.”
Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility will handcuff the next president by limiting his options.
The new guy will have to spend much of his time just mopping up the mess.
Disappointingly, the policy positions espoused by McCain and Obama don’t provide the degree of fiscal sobriety that Washington must embrace. Neither candidate can deliver on all his promises, while simultaneously shrinking the deficits and meaningfully addressing Social Security and Medicare.
If you want the unvarnished truth about our fiscal foundering in Washington, you’d be better advised to turn to the Web sites of such budget watchdogs as the Concord Coalition or Perot.
McCain and Obama apparently don’t believe that they can get elected by fully prescribing the bitter medicinal cocktail — higher taxes and reduced spending — needed to cure the ills that Bush has foisted upon us.
33 Responses to “The Next President Will be a Slave to Bush Administration Fiscal Woes”
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November 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I agree with all of you! It is our responsibility to fix this mess? It’s not going to go away on it’s own and it will take a strong argument against the two party monopoly in order to really have a chance. Well remember ross in 92″? We have to have someone we know we can trust to spearhead the real changes we need. I know there are enough of us who will respond to an organized campaign based on facts and how to fix the problem head on. This will entail a sweeping campaign recognizing every single political rep from every level who have helped perpetuate this financial meltdown by sending THEM to the unemployment line for a change. If we the people ever had a strong case against our failed two party stronghold, this is it. The job application has to match the record, talk doesn’t cut it! I don’t need to go into the details as we all know what has to be done to corral and eliminate the problem. I for one demand transparency and there’s no way any of us would allow this in our own lives so why with our government?? That’s really what this is all about. Our govt. must work within it’s means like the rest of us. In closing, all we have to do is organize like in 92′ except now we have a case infinitely more compelling to get broad support from the huge number of people just waiting to jump aboard. This time it should be easy to shine the light on the problem and how to fix it! I am always interested in commentary so please speak your mind and stay informed.
All the Best!
November 11th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
There will never be a true solution, unless the true cause of all our economic woes is dealt with: monopoly and manipulative speculation. While one percent of the people hold onto 90% of the wealth, which is collected from having a bequeathed monopoly on land, resources, and capital, 99% squabble for the 10% necessary for their subsistence; and what we see now are the richest of the elite speculating in all aspects of the financial system in order to further and fortify their existing control and power. They use that 90% of the wealth to make everything go up and down i.e. oil prices, gold, stocks, bonds, land and the housing market — they buy low, sell high, pull their money out, make things crash and buy low again… the process keeps going on and on.
Everything we’re dealing with now is because the last 30 years this country has gone into debt to keep a “middle class,” instead of breaking up monopoly to create real growth for the middle class.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
We need a plan like the Marshall Plan after the Second World War. Three different groups were formed to study the problem and after serious debate and meetings a plan was formulated that brought back Europe and saved them from ecomomic collapse. We need outstanding men like George Kennan and General Marshall to work on the plan. It should not be a “group think” reaction to every whim. Some of our better thinkers should be brought together to do this no matter how long it takes. This whole effort has been done too quickly. A hurried action is often no action at all but steps toward making the situation worse. Why are we \using the very people who created the problem? The warnings of this coming recesssion/depression have been heard for several years. This crisis is not a surprise to some. I was warned of this two years ago. We have sent our workers jobs elsewhere so wages are lower and lower with the continuing effort of our compamies to compete with India and China. Now who has the money to keep up the purchases? Or the mortgages? Someome is going to benefit from our woes. Let us identify those behind the scenes who brought this about and expose them.