So how much has Obama increased federal spending?
Mitt Romney has accused Barack Obama of igniting a “debt and spending inferno.” American Crossroads, the Karl Rove SuperPAC, says free spending by Obama “drove us $5 trillion deeper in debt.” Veep nominee Paul Ryan, who also chairs the House Budget Committee, this week accused Obama of stealing the next generation’s future with his spending spree.
All of that talk finally got me curious: Just how much HAS spending increased under President Obama? Put another way, what does a “debt and spending inferno” look like in numerical terms?
As the base year for this analysis, let’s take 2008, the last full year of George W. Bush’s presidency. You could make the argument for using 2009 as the base year, since the ‘09 spending bills had already been passed and fiscal 2009 was already almost four months underway by the time Obama took office. But to satisfy our conservative friends, we’ll take 2008 as a cleaner, less controversial starting point.
So, after adjusting for inflation, how much did federal spending increase from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2012, which ended Oct. 1? Any guesses?
Just to give you some guidance in making that guess, federal spending under the sainted President Reagan grew by 9.6 percent from 1980 to 1984. (Again, all of these numbers are inflation-adjusted.) Under the second President Bush, with a largely Republican Congress, federal spending grew by 16.5 percent from 2000 to 2004.
So how much has it increased under Obama’s “spending inferno”? 25 percent? 35 percent?
The answer is 9.9 percent. Between 2008 and the recently completed fiscal 2012, total federal spending has increased by 9.9 percent, about the same amount as under Reagan and considerably less than under Bush.
The chart above explains a lot about how we got here. On the right-hand side, you can see the impact of the Great Recession. In inflation-adjusted terms, federal spending is up less than 10 percent from 2008, but federal revenue is down substantially, falling 18 percent from fiscal ‘08 to ‘09.
In the longer term, you can see the rate of spending growth pick up under Bush in 2001. You can see revenue falter as a result of a small recession in 2001, and then continue to slide as a result of the Bush tax cuts. Those tax cuts have permanently altered the revenue trajectory, and combined with the Great Recession account for much of our debt and deficit woes.
So, to get bring us back to where we started:
Spending growth of 9.6 percent makes you a great conservative hero.
Spending growth of 9.9 percent makes you a great conservative villain.
And spending growth of 16.5 percent, combined with large tax cuts, makes you a recent two-term president whom nobody in your party wants to mention, and sets your country on a financially dangerous glide path.
– Jay Bookman
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491 comments Add your comment
Welcome to the Occupation
October 16th, 2012
1:39 pm
getalife: “The cons don’t even know the facts about Libya but cry about a cover up.”
Both parties are nervous as hell because they can’t risk this blowing the cover on the whole “War on Terror” fraud, so they’re desperately trying to spin it as a narrow political election-related intrigue. What will the American people think when it sinks in that we’ve been arming the very people we’ve supposedly been sending our sons and daughters to their deaths to fight?
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:40 pm
rb,
You cut and run from facts and the truth.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 16th, 2012
1:42 pm
RB from Gwinnett
October 16th, 2012
1:38 pm
I hate it when I start to read a post, notice its just plain stupid, and then realize I’ve failed to skip over one of Getaclue’s posts.
I know what you mean….. I just can’t believe that you get me. I feel the same way about yours and a few others.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:42 pm
“What will the American people think when it sinks in that we’ve been arming the very people we’ve supposedly been sending our sons and daughters to their deaths to fight?”
They already know we armed and trained obl and the taliban to fight the USSR.
They are focused on their team winning or get the President.
Welcome to the Occupation
October 16th, 2012
1:43 pm
The American people have not yet been brought face to face with the fact, colossal in its implications, that the marriage between capitalism and democracy is over.
But the process is beginning.
And if Ryan/Romney win, that process will speed up, considerably.
kayaker 71
October 16th, 2012
1:44 pm
Another one bites the dust…… Another one bites the dust….. tap your feet, now, and get the beat….. another one bites the dust……
A123 Systems went belly up today and was declared insolvent after Bozo invested 249M in taxpayer guarantees to the company that was supposed to make batteries for electric cars. It joins a growing list of other companies that received a blank check from Bozo or loan guarantees totaling over 2B dollars…..
Fisher Automotive
Solyndra
Amonix Solar
Bright Source
LSPE Energy
Abound Solar
Beacon Power
Uni Solar
Azure Dynamics
Evergreen Solar
Ener 1
All of the above are Bozo backed companies that are no longer in business or are doing business following declarations of insolvency. Romney was right….. this clown sure knows how to pick losers.
Mick
October 16th, 2012
1:47 pm
rb
I think it is disengenious to tag obama with all the debt that has accumulated. Yes, the stimulus was 800 billion and I was all for it. The stimulus did what it was supposed to do in stopping unemployment in the low 8%. I know one lady who has since resigned said it would lower unemployment to 6% and that’s where obama keeps getting taken to task for. Really, congress is the main culprit, not the president, they make the budget and the laws…
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:47 pm
kay,
How many are still in business?
Did you know we are second behind China in investing in green energy? So the list of businesses succeeding is large. Some Internet companies failed too.
Tom(Independent Viet Vet-USAF)
October 16th, 2012
1:47 pm
A couple of questions here, Jay, have you ever served in any form of the military. A serious question, not meant to demean you in any way. Getalife, same question for you, thanks for the response.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 16th, 2012
1:47 pm
Blank checks? Got proof?
kayaker 71
October 16th, 2012
1:48 pm
Keep, 1:47,
Google is your friend.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 16th, 2012
1:48 pm
Hmmmm… wonder if Mitt ever got any loan guarantees or other government assistance for companies that later failed?
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:49 pm
Tom,
No.
Welcome to the Occupation
October 16th, 2012
1:49 pm
getalife: “They already know we armed and trained obl and the taliban to fight the USSR.”
I seriously doubt that. Do you have any evidence on that?
When a considerable portion of the population doesn’t even know the difference between communism and fascism, you can’t tell me that they really “know” (in any meaningful way) about the details of our covert actions to overthrow regimes and support jihadists in Afghanistan to undermine the USSR during the Cold War. And even if they do, for most people the Cold War is ancient history – they simply don’t make the connection to the current era.
But if it starts to become apparent that we are in a quagmire in the Middle East where the ability to distinguish between friend and foe breaks down entirely, that’s a different story altogether. The War on Terror meme will suffer a major blow then.
kayaker 71
October 16th, 2012
1:50 pm
getalife, 1:47,
Internet companies? Perhaps, but they were not funded with taxpayer dollars by a sitting president who is awful at picking winners and losers. How can a loser like him pick winners? Romney will score with this tonight.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 16th, 2012
1:52 pm
k71, reality is your friend! You have no proof apparently for a claim that a blank check was given.
Mick
October 16th, 2012
1:53 pm
yaker
“We were surprised by the claim that “about half” of the companies went out of business. As we have written before, an independent review of the Department of Energy loan and loan guarantee programs found that the failure rate was lower than Congress had expected.
When we asked the Romney campaign for information on this claim, we were told that it refers only to companies that received so-called section 1705 loans — a program created by the stimulus. A second program — the so-called section 1703 loan program — was created under the Bush administration, but loans were approved by the current administration. Also, Romney counted only section 1705 loan guarantees approved in the Obama administration’s first two years — ignoring the past two years.
Romney did not say any of that during the debate.
By limiting his scope to just the first two years of the program, Romney arrives at seven companies and three of them — including Solyndra — have filed for bankruptcy protection. The others were Beacon Power, which received a loan guarantee of $43 million, and Abound Solar, which was approved for a $400 million loan but borrowed only $70 million against that. So, combined the three companies were approved for a total of $978 million in U.S.-backed loans and borrowed $648 million of that.
But there were a total of 26 companies that received approval for $16 billion in loan guarantees under the section 1705 program. So, 11.5 percent of the companies — not half — have filed for bankruptcy. And those companies were approved for a little more than 6 percent of the $16 billion in total loan guarantees.
Two other companies were awarded a total of $10.3 billion in loan guarantees by the Obama administration under the section 1703 program. So, if you count them, the bankruptcy rate would fall to under 11 percent, and the money at risk drops to about 4 percent.
The money loaned to Solyndra is largely lost, and it is unclear how much if any the U.S. will recover of the $70 million borrowed by Abound. However, as we wrote before, the government expects to recover as much as 70 percent of the $43 million it guaranteed to Beacon Power.
Also, as part of that same statement above, Romney said that the $90 billion “would have hired 2 million teachers.” (That means the teachers would receive a total compensation of $45,000 — including benefits, and are hired for only one year. The median pay for elementary teachers is about $51,000.)
But here’s the problem with Romney’s math: The $90 billion isn’t all grant money. Some of that money was in the form of loans. It included, for example, $3.25 billion in additional borrowing authority for the Bonneville Power Authority.
You can’t pay teachers in loans.
There is a cost to the government for guaranteeing loans, as the Romney campaign was quick to note. But it is only a fraction of the value of each loan.”
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
1:54 pm
Jay does a pretty good job of hiding the truth about Obama and coming up with partial facts to support his defense. The deficit for 2008 included more than 800 billion in TARP funds which was supposedly a one time expenditure. For those who can’t remember, let me remind you that Obama himself and the Democrat controlled house and Senate slobbered all over them selves in approving this nearly trillion dolllar slush fund to be adminisetered by the white house. At the time the media couldn’t find enough superlatives to describe how Obama came to the rescue from the campaign trail to “save” the country in getting TARP approved. Of course as president, Obama used TARP to pay off his campaign donors. He still brags about “saving” GM and Chrysler by giving them our childrens money for nothing in return. We are still out billions of dollars in wasted investments plus a few more billion which are unaccounted for.which Jay counts as coming from Bush when in fact the money was spent by Obama. Regardles, using the inflated by a trillion dollars 2010 base, Barack Obama still increased the entire sum total of the deficit spending of all presidents by 48.2% from the debt he inherited and which he called immoral and un-american of 10.7 trillion dollars to more than 16 trillion dollars today. It is not rational to think this president hasn’t spent and borrowed at a rate un precedented in our history. The amount of waste alone if spent wisely would have ended the current ecoomic disaster three years ago.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:55 pm
Occupation,
Well, they made a movie about it so some know but most turned off politics because it is ugly and stinks to high heaven.
The saddest part is not uniting after a attack so if mitt wins and there is another attack Americans will attack mitt. The cons set a horrible precedent with this President.
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
1:56 pm
TAXPAYER
So I went thru several of tables…heres what I got:
Total Outlays: Bush +69%/BO +52%
Military: BUSH +109%/Obama -4.3%
Healthcare: Bush +81%/Obama +118%
Medicare: Bush +98%/Obama +68%
Food Assistance: Bush+87%/Obama +68%
SS: Bush +50%/Obama+67%
General Government: Bush+53f%/Obama +53%
Interest Expense: Bush +13%/Obama +125%
Of course much is due to aging baby boomers, inability to control borrowing/deficit, and reduced defense costs due to winding down wars..
ALSO, TO BE FAIR…BUSHES 8 YEAR NUMBERS ARE ACTUAL/OBAMA’S 2008 TO 2011 ARE ACTUAL…SO WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IF OBAMA SPENDS 4 MORE YEARS REMAINS LESS THAN CREDIBLE
But here’s the ultimate screw job….taking out who spent what..cost increases 2000 to 2017
Healthcare: 300%
Military:100%
Food assistance: 200%
SS:152%
General Govt: 110%
Interest Expense: 153%
Total Outlays: 153%
So government is serving us well eh?
moonbat betty
October 16th, 2012
1:57 pm
Obama will Biden their behinds tonight.
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_zs05rHC5k
Joe Hussein Mama
October 16th, 2012
1:57 pm
K71 — “It joins a growing list of other companies that received a blank check from Bozo or loan guarantees totaling over 2B dollars…..”
How much did that war in Iraq cost?
Wake me when Obama’s investments in green energy have gotten as large as Bush’s ‘investment’ in the Iraqi awl bidness.
kayaker 71
October 16th, 2012
1:58 pm
Keep, 1:52,
If a blank check means doubling down on failures and pouring more money into these financial disasters, even after they were obviously not going to survive, so be it. We are talking about billions here, Keep. Spent by a president who doesn’t know his ass from third base about solar energy and couldn’t pick a winner if he counted to ten backwards. Political paybacks, financing a pipe dream, building glorified golf carts…. doesn’t any of this piss off a liberal taxpayer? Are you so in the tank for this sorry excuse for a president that you just ignore the obvious? No wonder this country is in trouble.
Mick
October 16th, 2012
1:58 pm
**The amount of waste alone if spent wisely would have ended the current ecoomic disaster three years ago.**
Total fantasyland but an accurate picture of some warped thinking…
getalife
October 16th, 2012
1:58 pm
kay,
Show me the list of companies still in business.I know you will not because you focus on the negative and ignore the positive. That is not intellectual honesty. That bs Joe Biden called you out.
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:02 pm
Mick, ask a banker if a 4% loss rate is aceptable on loans and/or an 11% bankruptcy rate.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:03 pm
Not sure why kay is upset because he fights for government waste like big oil welfare and tax cuts for Americans that don’t need them.
kay must be another con hypocrite.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 16th, 2012
2:03 pm
If a blank check means doubling down on failures and pouring more money into these financial disasters, even after they were obviously not going to survive, so be it
Moving the goal posts. You do realize that the term “blank check” has a meaning. So far you have not proved a single claim. You have done a nice little dance and pointed…still waiting for substance.
Tom(Independent Viet Vet-USAF)
October 16th, 2012
2:03 pm
getalife- Thanks Next question, are you retired and what type of occupation were you in? Just trying to figure out why there is such wealth envy of high-achievers in life. I just have trouble understanding people who choose not to want to earn what you achieve in life. Most of you libs do not seem like bad people but apparently you believe in sharing someone else’s success financially. Why?
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:04 pm
Tom,
Yes I am retired and had several occupations.
stands for decibels
October 16th, 2012
2:05 pm
Speaking of those entrepreneurial jerb-creators…
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-16/nfib-backs-todd-akin-despite-legitimate-rape-remarks
The National Federation of Independent Business’s home page today is adorned with a pink ribbon next to its logo and a promotion celebrating women business owners. What most visitors won’t find is the group’s endorsement of Todd Akin, the Missouri Senate candidate whose August remarks about “legitimate rape” made conservatives from Mitt Romney to Karl Rove run the other way.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:07 pm
tom ,
I don’t care about the wealthy because they don’t need welfare (that is government waste kay is crying about) from government and will be fine without government welfare.
Got it?
stands for decibels
October 16th, 2012
2:07 pm
The saddest part is not uniting after a attack so if mitt wins and there is another attack Americans will attack mitt.
snort. The wusses in the Democratic party, attacking a Godly War Preznit?
Go on, pull the other one.
paulo977
October 16th, 2012
2:08 pm
getalife ….” think the cons just can’t help themselves from fighting for the wealthy that do not need their help.”
_________________________________________________________________
I am not sure whether the sense I have is inflated because of the fact that I live in such a racist state or not , but unless one is woefully uninformed how can tax cuts for the wealthy help ALL citizens ? The way I see it is the GOP charge that those who don’t benefit by tax cuts for the wealthy are MOOCHERS and don’t deserve even to live ….. need I say who these moochers are ‘alleged’ to be ?
stands for decibels
October 16th, 2012
2:08 pm
…don’t get me wrong, there’ll be a few guys who’d stand up and risk being called “America-haters” for criticizing the next Gooper-Prez, but there’ll be damned few.
DannyX
October 16th, 2012
2:09 pm
BREAKING…
SKEWED POLLS RETURN
After a 2 week absence skewed polls are making a return. The Gallup likely voter poll has Obama now leading Romney 50% to 46%. There is no way the Romney bump is over!!! Where’s Dick Morris??? Thank God we still have Rasmussen.
stands for decibels
October 16th, 2012
2:11 pm
Thank God we still have Rasmussen.
Looks like the godless commies might’ve got to Rassy as well.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_swing_state_tracking_poll
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:12 pm
This is the first president in history who spent a trillion dollars let alone 6 trillion dollars with no improvement in the economy. There remains more people unemployed today than the day Obama took office or the corresponding corollary which is, there are fewer people working today than there were the day he took office. In addition, the average worker has lost more than $4,000 per year in take home pay plus an additional loss of roughly 1500 dollars per worker in increased health care costs which Obama swore would be less. And the workers have not yet experienced the new taxes forced on them by the new Obamacare requirements.
Mick
October 16th, 2012
2:12 pm
mighty
If you’re going to handicap one president, shouldn’t you do them all? How much did the iraqi misadventure cost us in blood and treasure? I’m sure no banker would’ve signed off that one…
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:12 pm
stands,
Not the party, the American people.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:14 pm
mr,
Economic numbers are better than expected and unemployment is dropping so you can stop lying about the economy.
What else you got?
Libya? You don’t even know the facts.
You got nothing mr.
Nothing but lies.
stands for decibels
October 16th, 2012
2:15 pm
Not the party, the American people.
Ah. You might have a point, then. But I’m not sure any American president actually deserves the 91% Gallup approvals Bush had immediately after 9/11, so maybe it’s just a case of reversion to the mean, so to speak.
Tom(Independent Viet Vet-USAF)
October 16th, 2012
2:18 pm
If we would stop saying GOVT SPENDING, and instead say it is the TAX PAYING CITIZENS money. That would strike a nerve with most decent people. Moochers is a term I do not use lightly. If people are down we should be willing to offer a helping hand to get them back on their feet but not to establish a way of life of dependency for them!!
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:18 pm
Joe Biden moved the numbers to our President.
Our President will win the last debates.
He will strike the terrorists in Libya.
October job report will lower unemployment.
obl movie will make us proud of our President.
cons are going to lose.
Makes me happy
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:18 pm
Bush deficits = mortgaging our children’s future, bankrupting our nation
Obama deficits = sound investments saving us from economic disaster
Bush tax cuts = caused economic collapse
Obama extends Bush tax cuts = sound economic policy
Liberals are so funny.
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:20 pm
Mick
You libs still want to run against Bush which is an admission Obama just doesn’t have it compared Romney.
Doggone/GA
October 16th, 2012
2:20 pm
” and instead say it is the TAX PAYING CITIZENS money”
Not true. Once you’ve paid your taxes it is the government’s money. Just as your salary is YOURS once you’ve been paid. It no longer is your employer’s money.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:21 pm
stands,
The dems can unite and the next day attack our President like the gop.
I doubt the dems will out the CIA twice.
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:22 pm
“cons are going to lose”
Conservatives win in life regardless of who wins the white house.
Liberals lose in life regardless of who wins the white house.
All the libs who danced in the streets when Obama was elected are still broke and jobless four years later. Government dependence is a losing strategy.
Libs have really thick skulls.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:23 pm
“Obama just doesn’t have it compared Romney.”
The proof will be in a couple of weeks in the poll that matters.
mitt is going to lose.
Welcome to the Occupation
October 16th, 2012
2:23 pm
getailife:
“The saddest part is not uniting after a attack so if mitt wins and there is another attack Americans will attack mitt. The cons set a horrible precedent with this President”
The thing to watch is Iran. How are they going to get consent manufactured for the catastrophe that Iran is going to be?
Another major attack would do it. Not that they’d necessarily stage it – but they may not have to.
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:23 pm
I will repeat, a well known and noted psychiatrist who observed Joe Biden during the debate last thursday thought if Joe wasn’t intoxicated he showed sings of dementia.
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:23 pm
16 million added to food stamp rolls in four years.
Libs call that progress.
Ben laughs at silly little libs.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:24 pm
ben,
Our economy is back.
The gop are another disaster waiting to happen.
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:24 pm
“if Joe wasn’t intoxicated he showed sings of dementia.”
You could say the same of any lib.
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
2:25 pm
GETALIFE
As of last month, 15 of 33 or so failed or filed bankruptcy while several others are on life support:
Vesta is laid off 800
A123 is being purchased by CHINA company despite our total of almost 400 million between feds and Michigan..
Compact Power is dying on the vine…
ENERI 1 was pulled of exchange in late 2011
So just in quick perusal, 19 of the 33 investments are in the process of dying or are dead already…
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:25 pm
“Our economy is back.”
Do you snort that cocaine, or smoke it?
Ben Shockley
October 16th, 2012
2:26 pm
Under Bush, 8% unemployment was the worst economy since the great depression. Under Obama, 8% unemployment and the economy is back.
getalife=biden
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:27 pm
ben is jm and I laugh at jm’s lies like Biden.
Occupation,
The neocons are back with mitt so if he wins, they will occupy Iran .
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
2:28 pm
GETALIFE,
Your continued wishful thinking, while positive, is absurd as we know how you feel and your ability to successfully prognosticate these outcomes is silly.
My guess is that due to the format, neither will strike material paydirt tonite…the next on of foreign policy I see Romney romp simply given the optics of ME et al…who knows who will win..
Michael
October 16th, 2012
2:28 pm
There is some discussion here about the success rate of investing in green energy. We should compare that to black energy. According to the petroleum industry about 55% of exploratory wells discover oil. About 90% of development wells actually produce oil. So, the best this industry can do is succeed about 50% of the time. Where is the outrage toward the guys that drill dry wells?
Green energy investments are more like venture capital investments. When one of these investments really hits, it will begin the conversion to green energy in a very serious way. Something like when we converted from whale oil to black energy. The successful developers of black energy (Rockefeller) became one of the wealthiest families in America and changed the American economy in the process. The same will happen, when someone finds the same success with green energy. By the way, I’m sure most of the first wells were dry.
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:33 pm
getailife:
“The saddest part is not uniting after a attack so if mitt wins and there is another attack Americans will attack mitt. The cons set a horrible precedent with this President”
Had one been conscious during the Bush presidency one would remember the Democrat party calling for the prosecution of presdent Bush for war crimes and more than a few calling for his assasination. President Obama supporters have accused Mitt Romney of being a “felon” a “murderer” of “hating women” of “hating children” and “hating minorities” with no apology or retraction from the president himself. Those that live in glass houses, etc., etc. etc.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:34 pm
stevie,
rw bs.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:35 pm
mr,
Americans united after 9/11 and cons refused after Libya. Fact.
Stop lying, it makes you look pitiful.
Doggone/GA
October 16th, 2012
2:36 pm
Looks like the Ohio voters won another one:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/16/high-court-allows-early-voting-in-ohio/?hpt=hp_t2
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:37 pm
Michael ,
Thanks.
Well said.
Mick
October 16th, 2012
2:38 pm
ben
The country is pretty diverse except for one dimensional characters such as yourself. The libs as you say, are not a monolithic grouping although thats the way they exist in your one dimension. No, politics and opinions are a bit more complex, we’ll greet you if you can ever move to the next level or three dimensions…
St Simons
October 16th, 2012
2:39 pm
my interpretation of the two graph lines –
the cons see the future, the demographics changing, time running out
on them & their failed ideology.
the cons are now scorching the earth – kamikaze cons
Mighty Righty
October 16th, 2012
2:41 pm
Michael
Oil produces usable cheap energy which was discovered without government help. Solar, and wind do not work! They are costly and ineficient. If and when someone discovers a reasonably priced alternative to oil the market will support it. Until then the government who can’t even run a consulate in Libya should butt the hell out and quit wasting our money.
Georgia
October 16th, 2012
2:42 pm
There is talk about the economy finally hitting the bottom. Romney deserves a chance to try to incite robust growth with corp tax incentives. The GOP is more likely to invade Iran too, and the Iran War is a case of the sooner the better. The window of a no nuke Iran is closing. I say we go. Vote Romney for a free Iran.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:43 pm
mr,
Government welfare for big oil started when?
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
2:44 pm
Michael,
The difference is that it is/was our money that was and will be lost (Exelon and First Solar are doing well)..I don’t recall any venture capital money aka our tax dollars going to black oil or whatever..at last calculation of new green jobs, the promise was 5 million but excluding folks who:
A person who sweeps the floor in a solar-panel manufacturing facility
A driver of a hybrid bus
A school bus driver
An employee who fills the bus with fuel
An employee involved in waste collection or water and sewer operations
A clerk at a bicycle repair shop
A manufacturer of rail cars
An oil lobbyist whose company is engaged in environmental issues
An employee of an environment or science museum.
…the total number of jobs created thus far is 355 at a cost of 28 million per job..
Mick
October 16th, 2012
2:44 pm
**Until then the government who can’t even run a consulate in Libya**
Rather telling that you focus on one incident as if that were the norm, how are all the other consulates in the world faring? It’s a joke that all blame needs to be focused on your domestic enemy obama. You should be praying he gets re-elected that way you’ll have four more years to blame someone for all your imagined ills…
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:45 pm
Vote Romney for a occupied Iran.
Fixed that for ya.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:48 pm
stevie,
Seriously?
That was weak.
You can do better than that.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:51 pm
The gop can’t even cut big oil welfare and voted no.
That is a fact jack so give the government waste bs a rest.
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
2:52 pm
GETALIFE,
How exactly do we come together after the murder of one of our most successful ambassadors and 3 others? That may have been the case had the communication between BO and HIS appointees was worth a flip…just like rushing out to spike the ball within hours of getting OBL (too bad we didn’t have a couple weeks with the data before he rushed to take credit) he immediately left town on self serving business not even meeting with anyone in the State department …or anyone else I can identify..this much was confirmed by deflection by Axelrod sunday. We do know that the state department knew within 24 hours that this was exclusively a well planned terrorist attack with nothing to do with video…both parties are using or in BO”s case attempted to use this for political gain in an election year…
The Libyan ambassador requested additional security (which would have followed him between the embassy and Benghazi) and despite your deflecting re GOP cuts, we certainly had the money to cover this request…bad optics for BO..the entire ME is bad optics for BO..
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:54 pm
“How exactly do we come together after the murder of one of our most successful ambassadors and 3 others? ”
Real Americans unite to show patriotism and resolve to get the terrorists not our President stevie.
cons failed.
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right..here I am...
October 16th, 2012
2:54 pm
GETALIFE,
Please provide some facts to back up you allegations…are you capable? If you want to talk the success of BO”s failed ME policy or green stimulus venture capital investments let’s go…prove me wrong.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
2:56 pm
You don’t even know all the facts stevie and bought media speculation.
Sad stevie.
Halftrack
October 16th, 2012
3:00 pm
Figures don’t lie; only the people who use them do. Take the national debt when Obummer started and the debt today. 16 Trillion dollars vs. X trillion back prior to 2009. That’s a lot of debt. Take the average household. In 2009 I owed 12 xxxdreds dollars, and today I owe 16 xxxdreds dollars. Yet, my total income has not gone up to cover the 2009 debt, therefore I am not better off and I am deeper in debt and I owe my soul to the country store. Unsustainable is still unsustainable only deeper.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
3:00 pm
stevie,
Our President focused on aq, got most of their leaders and they look to the sky for drones. He is ending both of w’s losing occupations, killed daffy and they are going after these terrorists in Libya.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 16th, 2012
3:03 pm
Well, I say we capture this #2 al Queda guy and waterboard him till he gives us the secret of Eternal Life. This guy’s been killed about 20 times and he keeps coming back.
getalife
October 16th, 2012
3:06 pm
Economy is good so cons focus on the debt.
Green energy businesses are successful but cons focus on the ones that failed.
The ME are purging dictators to be free but the cons are scared to death.
AmericaShrugged
October 16th, 2012
3:13 pm
What we know is we’ve been told two or three sifferent versions and, despite what Clinton said, simple logic tells you they can’t all be true. here’s the latest spin….”In the wake of an attack like this, in the fog of war, there’s always going to be confusion. And I think it is absolutely fair to say that everyone had the same intelligence. Everyone who spoke tried to give the information that they had. As time has gone on, that information has changed. We’ve gotten more detail, but that’s not surprising. That always happens.”
If you’re a party wanker you believe that BS. If you’re reasonable and independent, you realize it’s cover up spin. And that’s a fact!
AmericaShrugged
October 16th, 2012
3:18 pm
Liberal reality per geta – “Economy is good.”
Welcome to the Occupation
October 16th, 2012
3:19 pm
getalife:
On the way upstairs, but, on the neocons. While the neocons being in the driver’s seat is terrifying prospect, what we have now is not as far from their effective policy as we might like to think. We’re more subtle now than under the neocons in some ways, but that doesn’t mean that Democratic party FP is diametrically opposed to the neocons. It’s more a slight difference of emphasis and some tactical matters.
Stevie Ray: why are you so up in arms about a cover-up at the Benghazi embassy when what really ought to be scrutinized is our whole FP approach in the region?
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (aka "Knuckle-Dragger")
October 16th, 2012
8:59 pm
Have to check Bush from 2006 – when the twin geniuses, Pelosi and Reid started running Congress. That is when things went downhill, in a hurry. Democrats at fault, again, as usual.
Davydawg
October 18th, 2012
1:51 am
If Obama gets re elected more heroin will be brought across the border. More young girls will be abducted and sold into slavery. Manufacturers will drOp health insurance and all health care will be govt controlled. They will try to regulate everything you eat and drink. Smoke? Obese? Heart problems?Cancer? They got a panel for that. And they aren’t doctors. They’re IRS agents.
V. Raso
October 19th, 2012
3:23 am
You use percentages, but what was the Federal gov. spending in 1984 compared to today. For example say the gov. spent $100 between 1980-84 and Reagan added 9.6% to that he would have spent $9.60 more during his term. But if in the last 4 years the gov. spent $500 then Obamas increase of 9.9% would be roughly $50. this is a huge increase in dollars since the base line used for your percentages are not the same. Statistics can say anything you want if you manipulate them enough but you need to compare apples to apples. not apples to oranges. And not mislead by using a statistical base which is flawed.
No Market Issue Is Bigger Than Sovereign Debt
October 22nd, 2012
9:44 am
[...] since we are in election season — yes, federal spending has increased under Obama. But this started LONG ago, so it’s everybody’s fault. [...]