Quote:
Originally Posted by Wapasha
0bama has spent $5 trillion freaking dollars in new federal debt, in three years, ask yourself "what do we have to show for it"??
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That's the big lie talking point that the GOP pedals.
The implications of this big lie is that Obama vastly expanded the government to the tune of trillions. If so, where are the great big programs? Obama did pass the ACA, but that mainly goes into effect in 2014. He also passed a stimulus package, that was $787 billion, with 40% tax-cuts, spread over two years.
There was no "Obama spending." Deficits arose from specific areas, namely, a drop in tax-revenue due to the Great Recession; and additional spending that automatically kicks in during bad economic times (e.g. the Great Recession) -- such as unemployment benefits; food stamps; Medicaid, etc.
What we’re seeing isn’t Obama's expansion of Big Government; we’re seeing the government we already had, responding to a terrible economic slump. It would have been about the same had McCain won -- but probably longer lasting as McCain would have mimicked the austerity disaster that Europe decided on.
Incidentally, it's a good thing we had these safety nets that didn't exist during the Great Depression, or we would have repeated the severity of the Great Depression --
that's what we have to show for it! We don't have millions of people begging in the streets; we don't have widespread hunger; we don't have people dying for lack of medical treatment, like we did during the Great Depression.
As an aside, although the amount of federal debt has doubled since 2006, the amount of interest the federal government pays has not increased over 2006 levels.