How Much Trouble are We In?

This chart was created in Excel using data from the Economic Report of the President as Transmitted to Congress in 2003. This is President Bush's data. It's scary. One of the things that I have always found distressing when dealing with Political Evangelicals is that they never let objective facts get in the way of bad decision making. I can talk about "facts" and present "data" but what I usually hear in response is, "All I know is that he loves the Lord." I am glad the President Bush "Loves the Lord" because he is digging us a hole so deep that only God will be able to get us out of it.

Case in point-The above chart shows Federal Surpluses and Deficits going back to 1961 along with the ever growing national debt. Democratic administrations are in Blue and Republican Administrations are in Red. Notice something? The Democrats have this odd habit of balancing their budgets. President Carter did not balance his budget but he did dramatically cut the deficit left to him by President Ford. President Carter did this without raising taxes and while dramatically increasing defense spending. President Clinton not only balanced his budget, he ran the largest surplus in US history. If you are a Republican or a Political Evangelical you are probably saying all kinds of nasty things right now, things that I cannot write if I want to keep this blog. Go on, say bad words, get it out of your system. Done? Just remember this data came from President George W. Bush. I know this data is correct because President Bush "loves the Lord."

See the squiggly line going down? That's the money that the Federal Government is borrowing every single year to cover the amount of money it is spending in excess of the money it is taking in. See how it goes up under President Clinton? See how it goes down under President Bush? President Bush is borrowing money faster than a drunken frat boy in a Liquor Barn. About $400 billion and climbing for 2004. But President Bush does not drink because he "Loves the Lord." However, President Bush does want to make the tax cut permanent. How are we paying for these tax cuts? Remember the squiggly line?

There is another line on this chart, it is going up. The the line that is going up is the National Debt. This is like the balance that is accumulated on a credit card when you don't pay off your monthly balance. This line is moving up to the $8 trillion mark. Debt is T-bills. I have T-Bills, but mostly the Chinese and Japanese have T-Bills. China and Japan are like Visa or Mastercard. Are you comfortable with that?

President Bush wants to work this same magic on Social Security, God help us.