Wonkette
The new president will get a very special gift from the George W. Bush Administration next year: an all-time record deficit of $490 billion American dollars, or “nine Euros.” Before Bush took office in 2001 — and we do mean “took,” har har! — the federal budget deficit didn’t exist, but there was a surplus of $230 billion in the budget. [Bloomberg]
Yeah, but…Clinton!
Conservative fiscal responsibility at its finest.
And this is any different from how he left his other jobs?
Let the good times roll!
…so can conservatives officially call “trickle down economics”/Reaganomics BULLSHIT?!
Deficit, schmeficit. I’m more concerned about the pardons.
More Legacy! Yea! Wait! There are still 5-months left! He may destroy planet Earth yet!
That’s like 5 whore diamonds, right?
Can’t we run the whole economy on just whore diamonds???
I blame Saddam for provoking us into this war by planning and funding 9/11 all the while making a bet with Bush that he couldn’t get Congress to cut taxes during “wartime”.
ManchuCandidate: Exactly.
Will the reporters harp on this so I don’t have to hear Republicans scream about how they’re the purveyors of “fiscal responsibility” and “low taxes.” I’m fucking sick of it. It’s like Clinton got the economy all nice and clean and then W came in and took a giant dump on it.
AngryBlakGuy: No, see, because economic policies take eight to ten years to really affect the economy. That is why Reaganomics led to the prosperous 90s, and Clinton’s tax and spend liberalism put us in the whole that we’re not in today.
Ah so what. Adjusting for inflation that’s about the same deficit as his dad left us in 1992. (FY 2002 deficit: $290.4 billion - adjust up 2008/2009)
Ken, as much as I love your tags..I’ve asked before,..we need a “we’re fucked” tag, at least until these incompetent asses are out of office..thanks!
Sure, but when you combine that with the government surplus of pain, misery and suffering in these eight short years, we break even.
Per the WSJ, can’t Batman just bail us out?
You guys don’t understand. The free market will take care of the deficit. Plus, the tax cuts and the rebates will invigorate the economy. You got to lose money to make money. Excuse me while I go smell more glue.
Godless Liberal *: But does that mean that Carter caused the boomtime of the 1980s?
What you guys are failing to take into account is that when adjusted for the size of the US economy divided by military expenditures, multiplied by the difference between GNP and GDP squared, and factoring inflation, the changing lunar equinox, the price of GM stock options, average corporate fuel efficiency, the price of a gallon of gas, the price of a gallon of milk, the average home mortgage deduction, and the average age at which girls reach puberty these days, Bush’s deficit is not out of line with historical highs.
Such goings on here. Can’t you people just trust Cheney when he says “Deficits don’t matter.”? After all, everyone important will be dead and gone when those debts have to be paid back.
The deficit means either: (a) no cute little puppy for Malia or (b) no secret service protection for ex-prez GWB. Choices, choices.
Yeah, so the spread is $820 billion.
Which is about what Iraq has cost so far.
So all Hopey has to do is set the wayback machine for 2002 and it’ll be a wash.
Signed
John Kenneth Gallstone
Canuckistani Economist
W in the 1980s: There’s gotta be oil somewhere in Texas.
W in the 2000s: There’s gotta be a surplus somewhere in DC.
AfghanVet: His daddy’s friends aren’t gonna pony up this time, that’s what’s different. This is their big payoff and they’re making the most of it.
BadNewsJack: Are you Neil Cavuto by any chance???
You know what this means? The GOP is going to start talking about Monica Lewinski or something to try and divert attention away from this. Deficit? Wars? Yeah, but Clinton diddled an INTERN.
Remember way back when when we had a budget surplus and Al Gore kept on talking about taking that extra money and putting it in a lockbox and everybody made fun of him for saying it because he was really nerdy and boring and Bush would be much more fun to have a beer with? Oh, those were the days.
…the utterly ridiculous thing is the fact that the cost of the “War” in Iraq is being funded OFF the books! For all we know this is the low-ball number.
Dave J.: No, don’t be silly. Carter caused the inflation of the 70s, by some mechanism Reaganites have yet to fully explain.
We’re going to pay off the deficit with the all the Iraq oil we’ve secured during the war.
And Santa just delivered a unicorn to my front door.
So, exactly what IS a fucking “high crime and misdemeanor,” anyway?
This is the only reason, and I mean the ONLY reason why WALNUTS! winning would be okay. I think four more years of tax cuts for the top 1% and out of control war spending just might be the final death knell for the Republican party.
If Hopey wins the GOP is going to pull another “Clinton caused 9/11″ and blame the crap economy on the Dems. They’re already blaming gas prices on them, so no shocker there.
Wow. I have more money than the United States Government.
How f’ing depressing is all of this? You KNEW Bush was a disaster. None of the revelations about him or his appointees or the outcomes of their actions is a surprise. But step back and take a look at the whole of his “legacy”. Only stockholders in a few companies such as Halliburton can be pleased.
Serolf Divad: lolZ
AngryBlakGuy: Happy thought of the day!
Cicada: …in a sick and twisted way Ive been thinking the exact same thing for months now. Give the Republicans another 4 more years to hang themselves with and watch their party go the way of the wigs!
This is why the government just prints more money, eliminating its debt. Something RON PAUL WARNED US ABOUT. WAKE UP YOU FIATS!
AngryBlakGuy: Yes, but how many of us will still be alive to see that happy day? Remember how the world is supposed to end in December 2012?
Somehow, this is going to be the black guy’s fault 3 years into a crisis-plagued Presidency.
NotUrEvryDayWEzl: That’s why we should all be having sex. Right now. Before the world ends.
TGY: …I cant wait to see who they put on the new $10,000 dollar bill!
tunamelt: I know! Sadly I have to make enough whore diamonds to spend the whore diamonds necessary for sex.
Imagine how bad the deficit would be if Bush had not asked us all to sacrifice and pay more in taxes to fund his war?
AngryBlakGuy: I would guess Dick Cheney, so people can say: “Hey, can I borrow a Dick until payday?” or “Slip me a Dick under the table and it’s a done deal.”
Things like that.
I gotta say, the last eight years have made my political ego *huge.* I get the urge to say things like, “hey, Republicans? You know that shit I’ve been warning you about endlessly for eight years? Yeah, it’s all happened! How about you all go away for a while and let the smart people have a try at running things?” But that would probably make all the bitters vote for McCain out of sheer spite, so, probably not such a good idea.
This is awesome: the fair and balanced folks over at Fox News have a typically fair and balanced take on this whole deficit not-Bush’s-fault-problem:
…”a lot can happen” in 18 months that could worsen or improve the outlook, such as an improved economy leading to better tax returns, or increased spending under a new administration. The official specifically warned about the impact a Democrats.
“Democrats could blow the doors off spending and drive the deficit even higher,” the official said.
Deficits don’t matter…
Because Jeasus is returning soon. After he kills off all the heathen in that next, really big war, he will personally appropriate all their assets and stuff our empty coffers with their gold and oil.
AfghanVet: Nope. Not any different from how he left his other jobs.
Serolf Divad: Wow. You just penned Bill Kristol’s next column.
Advocatus_Diaboli: WIN
tunamelt: I’m on it.
sanantonerose:
You got me. I confess: I sometimes ghostwrite for Bill Kristol when I’m really, really high.
Funny how when he retires he feels his speeches will “replenish the ol’ coffers”, but over the last eight years his speeches and deeds have emptied ours.
Godless Liberal *: Carter caused spiraling inflation through profligate expenditures on CIA-supported wars in Central America, by giving money, mortars, rifles and rockets to the anti-Russia Mujahadeen in Towelheadistan and by trying to outspend the Soviets on nuclear arms. Oh, wait. That wasn’t him.
Serolf Divad: I think he is drunk all the time, not high. If you wrote them smoking weed/crack/arsenic laced banana peels they would make much more sense. Prose like that you need to be chugging mouthwash to crank out.
Let’s just do like Italy and lop three zeros off the currency. And then face west across the Pacific and go “bwak, bwaakk, bwwaaaaak”. That’s what fucking Andrew Jackson would do. Plus, Oklahoma would see another big population increase.
This is making me so bitter that I am just going to cling to my porn and arugula in a fetal position and wait for it all to pass.
How many shares of Halliburton is nine Euros?