{"id":266,"date":"2012-10-02T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T18:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=266"},"modified":"2012-10-02T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T18:33:07","slug":"11-things-the-republican-party-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-the-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/11-things-the-republican-party-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-the-deficit\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Things The Republican Party Doesn’t Want You To Know About The Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"
Thanks to NTDO PC Director\u00a0Bill Lavin<\/a>\u00a0for finding this valuable piece through the Huffington Post<\/div>\n
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11 Things The Republican Party\u00a0Doesn’t Want You To Know About The Deficit<\/a><\/h2>\n
The Republican Party does not want you to know these things about the federal budget deficit. While Republican\u00a0politicians claim that an Obama spending binge is responsible for the ballooning deficit, the truth is not so simple.<\/div>\n
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  1. The Deficit Has Grown Mostly Because Of the Recession<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– The deficit has ballooned not because of\u00a0specific spending measures, but because of the recession. The deficit more than doubled between 2008 and 2009,\u00a0as the economy was in free fall, since laid-off workers paid less in taxes and needed more benefits. The deficit then\u00a0shrank in 2010 and 2011.<\/li>\n
  2. The Stimulus Cost Much Less than Bush’s Wars & Tax Cut<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Republicans frequently have blamed the $787 billion stimulus for the national debt, but, when all government spending is taken into account, the stimulus\u00a0frankly wasn’t that big. In contrast, the U.S. will have spent nearly $4 trillion on wars in the Middle East by the\u00a0time those conflicts end, according to a recent report by Brown University. The Bush tax cuts have cost nearly $1.3\u00a0trillion over 10 years.<\/li>\n
  3. The Deficit Grew Under George W. Bush<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– When George W. Bush took office, the federal government\u00a0was running a surplus of $86 billion. When he left, that had turned into a $642 billion deficit.<\/li>\n
  4. The Deficit is Shrinking<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Last year’s federal budget deficit was 12 percent lower than in 2009, according to\u00a0the Office of Management and Budget. The deficit is projected to shrink even more over the next several years.<\/li>\n
  5. Investors Are Paying Us to Borrow Money<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0– The interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is negative,\u00a0according to the Treasury Department. Investors are even paying us for 30-year Treasury bonds, when adjusted for\u00a0inflation.<\/li>\n
  6. Investors Are Not Running Away<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Conservative commentators have been warning for years that investors\u00a0will run away from Treasury bonds because of the national debt. So far it’s not happening. Interest rates on\u00a0Treasury bonds continue to hover at historic lows.<\/li>\n
  7. Health Care Reform Reduces the Deficit<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Republicans have blasted the Affordable Care Act as “budget-busting.” But health care reform actually reduces the deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.<\/li>\n
  8. The U.S. Is Borrowing Less from China<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– The U.S. government is borrowing much less from foreign\u00a0countries than before the recession, according to government data cited by Paul Krugman. That is because the U.S.\u00a0private sector is financing our bigger deficits.<\/li>\n
  9. We Spend a Lot on Defense<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Defense spending constituted 20 percent of federal spending last year, or\u00a0$718 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This adds up to 41 percent of the world’s\u00a0defense spending, according to Bloomberg TV anchor Adam Johnson. Mitt Romney has vowed to not cut defense\u00a0spending if elected president.<\/li>\n
  10. We Spend a Lot on Health Care<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– Health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, constituted 21\u00a0percent of federal spending last year. In contrast, education constituted 2 percent of federal spending. Meanwhile,\u00a0Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have promised not to change Medicare for Americans age 55 and older.<\/li>\n
  11. Republicans May Want Large Deficits for Now<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0– The federal budget deficit ballooned under Ronald\u00a0Reagan, and that may be just the way Republicans like it. Some Republican thinkers have proposed “starving\u00a0the beast”: that is, cutting taxes in order to use larger deficits to justify spending cuts later. Since Republicans\u00a0ultimately want lower taxes and a smaller government, what better way is there to cut spending than to make it\u00a0look urgent and necessary?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n