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What Did President Bush Promise?
One month after taking office, President Bush promised that he would "retire nearly $1 trillion in debt over the next four years. ... the largest debt reduction ever achieved by any nation at any time." He was speaking of the debt held by the public.
Since then, the debt held by the public has increased by more than $600 billion. At the rate it's going it will increase just as much as President Bush predicted it would decrease. The gross national debt has increased by $1.2 trillion since that day.
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White House: An Unsustainable Path
Feb. -, 2004 OMB (White House)
"These long-run budget projections show clearly that the budget is on an unsustainable path"...
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Greenspan on the Deficit
Feb. 25, 2004 Alan Greenspan
"... under a range of reasonably plausible assumptions about spending and taxes, we could be in a situation in the decades ahead in which rapid increases in the unified budget deficit set in motion a dynamic in which large deficits result in ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years. The resulting rise in the federal debt could drain funds away from private capital formation and thus over time slow the growth of living standards." ...
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Greenspan: Adjustments to our Spending Commitments Needed
Feb. 25, 2004 Alan Greenspan
"The degree of uncertainty about whether future resources will be adequate to meet our current statutory obligations to the coming generations of retirees is daunting.*"...
"I believe that a thorough review of our spending commitments--and at least some adjustment in those commitments--is necessary for prudent policy. I also believe that we have an obligation to those in and near retirement to honor what has been promised to them. If changes need to be made, they should be made soon ... "
* zFact: The primary source of uncertainty is not the retirement of baby-boomers, but the unpredictability of tax cuts, which have been far greater in the last three years than the total social security shortfall for the next 75.
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Unmanageable Budget Deficits
Sep. 18, 2003 David Walker, Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office
"Our projected budget deficits are not 'manageable' without significant changes in 'status quo' programs, policies, processes and operations.... We cannot simply grow our way out of this problem."
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Budget Projections Subject to Error
Jan. 25, 2001 Alan Greenspan, Senate Budget Committee testimony
"The resulting budget projections, therefore, are necessarily subject to a relatively wide range of error.
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"(I)f long-term fiscal stability is the criterion, it is far better, in my judgment, that the surpluses be lowered by tax reductions than by spending increases. The flurry of increases in outlays that occurred near the conclusion of last fall's budget deliberations is troubling because it makes the previous year's lack of discipline less likely to have been an aberration.
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"But let me end on a cautionary note.... We need to resist those policies that could readily resurrect the deficits of the past and the fiscal imbalances that followed in their wake."
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An Unsustainable Path
Feb. -, 2003 OMB (White House)
These long-run budget projections show clearly that the budget is on an unsustainable path, although the rise in the deficit unfolds gradually.
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Bush: Government Has Got Plenty of Money
Jan. 29, 2004 George W. Bush
"Listen, government has got plenty of money, and it needs to stay focused and principled. We need to be wise with the taxpayer's money. But it turns out, when you're trying to keep your economy going, the best way to do so is not through government spending, but it's through the spending of thousands of individuals across our economic spectrum."
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Greenspan on Risks of Increased Debt Relative to GDP
Nov. 6, 2003 Alan Greenspan
"The exact magnitude of such risks are very difficult to estimate, but ..., in my judgment, ... warrant aiming to close the fiscal gap primarily, if not wholly, from outlay restraint."
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Cheney's Indifference to the Deficit
Nov. 15, 2002 Dick Cheney
"Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
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Bush: Deficit Spending OK During 'Trifecta'
Jun. 7, 2002 George W. Bush
"I remember -- I remember campaigning in Chicago, and one of the reporters said, would you ever deficit spend? I said only -- only in times of war, in times of economic insecurity as a result of a recession, or in times of national emergency. Never did I dream we'd have a trifecta."
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$40 Billion to Toss Around
Mar. 22, 2001 George W. Bush
"We've got pretty good cash flow coming into the treasury. In spite of the fact the economy is slowing down in the first four months of the year, the cash flow was $40 billion more than anticipated -- $40 billion more."
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Bush Predicts Largest Debt Reduction Ever
Feb. 28, 2001 George W. Bush
"It [this new approach] will retire nearly $1 trillion in debt over the next four years. This will be the largest debt reduction ever achieved by any nation at any time. It achieves the maximum amount of debt reduction possible without payment of wasteful premiums. It will reduce the indebtedness of the United States, relative to our national income, to the lowest level since early in the 20th Century and to the lowest level of any of the largest industrial economies."
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Bush's Plan Pays Down Debt?
Feb. 27, 2001 George W. Bush
"Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now... My plan pays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt."
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We Won't Run a Deficit?
Jan. 2, 2001 George W. Bush
"The tax relief package that I talked about in the campaign, was phased-in based upon projections so that we wouldn't run a deficit."
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Conservative Fiscal Policy: Coming In Out of the Rain
Feb. 6, 1977 Reagan
"When a conservative says it is bad for the government to spend more than it takes in, he is simply showing the same common sense that tells him to come in out of the rain."
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Reagan: Ship of State Is Out of Control
Feb. 18, 1981 Ronald Reagan
"Can we, who man the ship of state, deny it is somewhat out of control? Our national debt is approaching $1 trillion. A few weeks ago I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I've been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you'd be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high. The interest on the public debt this year we know will be over $90 billion, and unless we change the proposed spending for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, we'll add another almost $80 billion to the debt."
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The Paydown of Federal Debt
Apr. 27, 2001 Alan Greenspan
"I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy: it keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes."
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Reagan Says Debt is Worst Ever, When it's at a 36 Year Low
Mar. 31, 1976 Reagan
"The fact is, we'll never build a lasting economic recovery by going deeper into debt at a faster rate than we ever have before. It took this nation 166 years until the middle of World War II to finally accumulate a debt of $95 billion. It took this administration just the last 12 months to add $95 billion to the debt. And this administration has run up almost one-fourth of the total national debt in just these short 19 months."
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http://zfacts.com/p/467.html | 01/18/12 07:16 GMT
Modified: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:20:34 GMT
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