:::::::crickets::::::

David Walker, Comptroller General of the US says very clearly, "I don't know anybody who has done their homework, has researched history, and who's good at math who would tell you that we can grow our way out of this problem." He is accompanied by the Heritage Foundation, the Concord Coalition, and the Brookings Institution as he takes his story to the streets.

One simple point to remember.

Funding for the war is kept out of the budget, and is instead paid for through repeated "emergency" spending bills. Therefore, this spending is kept off the books and is not part of the equation when determining deficits.

However, the positive effects of this money on tax revenue (e.g., taxes paid by the many people and businesses receiving these monies) are included in determining deficits. Therefore, the administration, through its continued cowardly insistence on paying for the Iraq War through emergency spending bills, is basically cheating the books.

Why am I not surprised?

The tax cuts did this - by kick-starting the economy, they grew the economic pie so large that even at the lower tax rates...

Well, color me amazed that kblack, Conscriptor or one of our other resident Lefties hasn't commented that the "wealthy" have gotten a disproportionate share of that bigger pie. Personally I don't have a problem with the ones who cause the pie to grow getting a bigger share of it.

But I thought this was the worst economy since Herbert Hoover? This can't be...

I wish the conservative radio personalities would stop talking about the Dem's plans for a $450B or $650B tax increase. They make it sound as if the tax cuts were repealed, it would generate additional revenues. But it won't. It will actually decrease revenues.

Deborah,

Grow our way out of which problem?

Deborah,

Never mind - looked it up: he's talking about entitlement spending.

Yep, growing our way out of that is not the answer...privatisation is, and the problem with that is that the left is determined to keep to the 19th century model for entitlement spending here in the 21st century.

steveGA,

Would you care to explain how requesting emergency spending bills to assist the Iraqi and Afghan people live in a free society is "cowardly"?

Every year, Administrations have requested emergency spending bills to pay for operations that were not forecasted. So by your reasoning, the emergency spending requests to fight WWII was "cowardly". As was the funding to assist in the Katrina aftermath. And the 2004 Tsunami relief funding. Or to provide relief during flooding. All of these events resulted in emergency funding requests.

So what, beyond your terminal case of BDS, is your problem with the increased tax revenues that have resulted from the Bush Tax Cuts? Or that fact that the "rich" are paying a greater percentage of the tax burden than ever before. Or that millions of lower income earners were taken completely off the tax rolls. Or that millions of lower income earners actually paid no taxes, yet received a "refund" in the form of child tax credits (paid for by the "rich" through their taxes".

In Clinton's last year in office I paid $600 in Federal taxes and recieved a $600 tax return. I have five kids and the bush tax cut resulted in my paying nothing in federal taxes last year and recieving a $6200.00 tax return based on a $48,000 annual income. The Bush tax cut help our family out to the tune of increasing our annual income by $6800 dollars or slightly over 14%.

Thank you Mr. President!!!

Uh, yeah but like the WAR is not figured into this budget. I do believe this WAR is not cheap.

The People who support this Administration must really hate America. I'm not saying Republicans. I'm saying people who support this Administration. There is a difference.

I state this a lot, but this is not a team sport. Stop cheering for your home team if they get away with a bad call. You are putting your PARTY before your COUNTRY. Shameful.

They're all corrupt. Both sides of the aisle. And, they count on this division so that you won't question their actions, and instead will simply finger point at the other team.

Woooohoooo, we'll balance the budget in 2008. Everything's peachy. We're the best!... Seriously, if we keep drinking this kool aid we'll be speaking Chinese by 2020.

A-10

Katrina and the tsunami were true unpreventable emergencies, whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a deliberate disaster planned not by mother nature but by architects of war.

Now if only we can contain the all time high in federal spending, maybe we would make progress.

Its basic math. if you income increases, but your spending habits increase at a greater rate, you have to borrow to make up for the difference.

For some reason, my fellow conservatives lost their way when it came to fiscal responsibility.

The one chance we had, where we controlled the presidency and both houses of congress, we became spending whores.

IT,

For the past couple years, revenues have increased faster than spending.

Certainly my preference is for an actual, real reduction in spending (heck, just a 1% cut in spending in each of the next 10 years would probably wind up paying off a huge chunk of the national debt) - but as we live in a world where any cut is presented in the MSM as a deliberate attempt to kill children and puppies, its rather hard to get done.

yes profits are up - and the tax cuts did it. So the rich have gotten very very rich under Bush. If you look at all the major indicators for the middle class American - they are all much WORSE than they were under Clinton as I have posted before.

Record spending and proliferation of federal government expansion still outpaces record revenue

Please explain how Bush is a Fiscal conservative again??

S&P 500 Annualized Total Return (%)
17.4% Bill Clinton
17 % Gerald R. Ford
15.6 % Harry S. Truman
14.9% Dwight D. Eisenhower
14.4% Ronald Reagan
14.4% George H. W. Bush
12.4% John F. Kennedy
11.2% Jimmy Carter
10.2 % Lyndon B. Johnson
1.7% George W. Bush 2001-May 2007
0.6% Richard M. Nixon
Close immediately after Bush takes office January 20, 2001:

S&P 500: 1,342.90

Today 1,501

Katrina and the tsunami were true unpreventable emergencies, whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a deliberate disaster planned not by mother nature but by architects of war.

Blah, blah, blah, talking points again, blah, blah, blah.

yes profits are up - and the tax cuts did it. So the rich have gotten very very rich under Bush. If you look at all the major indicators for the middle class American - they are all much WORSE than they were under Clinton as I have posted before.

Blah, blah, blah, more uninformed, and unsupported bullcrap, by the biggest moron in history, Dr. Rerun.

Dr. Rerun, where did you go to college? You didn't, did you? You're a liar, aren't you?

Keefer I have never seen one single post where you try to actually argue anything of substance. All you do is name call and say other people's arguments are 'talking points' and stupid.

Myself and others are actually laughing quite hard at you right now - so at least you serve as some sort of entertainment for those who come here to discuss issues and not exchange 3rd grade insults...
I mean really - if you are going to come up with an insult - you could at least come up with something slightly more imaginative, mature, or meaningful then the nonsense you come up with..

But keep it coming keefer - we love to watch the clown dance..

A-10,

The difference between emergency funding for tsunami aid or Katrina aid is that these were actual emergencies, e.g., they were events that could not be planned for in yearly routine budgets. The Iraq War has been going on for over four years now. After year 1, the administration should be able to forecast and budget for SOME costs of the war.

It is cowardly to put it in an emergency funding bill because it allows the administration to try and avoid confronting the actual costs of this war. Case in point, it allows Mark and numerous rightwing posters to talk about reducing the budget deficit while not mentioning the crushing costs of the war.

By the way, A-10, or any other wingnut here: any comments on the rest of my original post? Counting the benefits of the Iraq spending but not counting the costs of Iraq spending is shady, Enron accounting. Is that fine with you?

If so, I've got some land in Florida to sell you...

...you could at least come up with something slightly more imaginative, mature, or meaningful then the nonsense you come up with..

"then the nonsense?" You blithering idiot, it's "than," not "then!" Why do you lie about having a PhD, Dr. Retard?

But keep it coming keefer - we love to watch the clown dance..

You need to look in the mirror, Dr. Retard, to "watch the clown dance." Also, other than you and rockhead, there is no "we" here. Asshat...

thats great stuff :)

I know--I'm more creative than a PhD, with half my brain tied behind my back...

The name calling and finger pointing are simple misdirection techniques. They're worthless insults intended to make the deliverer seem superior to the person(s) he is making the comments about.

All this blah blah blah nonsense really does nothing to fix our Country's current situation.

The division this country is going through is a direct result of our politicians using us to point fingers at each other instead of assigning blame to where it belongs. The politicians themselves.

Again, as I stated earlier. Stop rooting for your political party like it was a hometown sports team. The want you to divide and call each other childish names etc... Our division gives them their strength.

Politicians can get away with gross incompetence because they will always have their base (left or right) to protect them. It is the fool who supports these villains without question that are equally responsible for the corruption in D.C.

They really must have some good laughs at our expense.

God bless you President Bush for presiding over the strongest economy in american history and thank you for keeping us safe without attack for over 5 1/2 years. President George W. Bush, the greatest president in american history.

The problem with taxing the rich, is your not. You dont tax wealth, you tax INCOME. The people who are actually getting taxed, are the ones BUILDING wealth. Guess who that is? YOU! If your smart enough and work hard enough you can be rich! But the Dems try and use this class envy crap to get poor votes. The Republicans try and make the poor better themselves.