The hypocrisy of the "Deficit Hawks". Tragically funny!

[wutitiz]

You don't even need the CBO document. I have been thru this exercise myself in other forums. You just take the total cost of the Iraq war. which was widely reported as $806 billion at the end of last year. Or look at this doc from the Congressional Research Service: they list the cost as $823.2 billion, in the upper right-hand corner of table 1. (billion here, billion there, what'a a 17 billion discrepancy?)


http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf

So lets take the larger estimate of 823.2 divide by 9 years (2003-2012) that the war/occupation lasted, and you get about $91 billion per year. Divide by federal outlays during those 9 years, and you'll find that it comes to less than 3 percent of spending.

Bottom line, even if we had never set foot in Iraq, we still would have our debt monster with us.

[LexusNexus]

Originally Posted by AllenSJC

He is merely pointing out the hypocrisy of many in the self-styled "party of fiscal conservatism" (aka the Republicans) who are for deficit reduction when it's politically expedient (aka when a Democrat is the President).

Remember, folks, it was a Republican Congress and President who launched two unfunded wars, gave the wealthiest Americans two huge giveaways, and also gave pharmaceutical companies a giant giveaway (Medicare Part D). Furthermore, the real estate bubble of the 2000s, which a Republican-dominated government and their Wall Street friends were largely responsible for creating, helped create the biggest revenue-drainer of all: the huge recession of 2008/2009.

The wealthiest Americans and businesses won't invest in the economy if there's no demand. And there is not as much demand, because the working majority of Americans have been squeezed more and more by rising costs and stagnant wages.

This is the best post that illustrates the reality that is the pathetic GOP existence. During the Bush years, Republicans sat around picking their noses in skyrocketing-deficit bliss while Bush ran up the deficit. As soon as Obama was sworn in, suddenly they begain screaming about how high the deficit was. Pathetic.

Of course, in a post-Bush economy, one decimated by Republicans, Republican solutions (cut taxes AND spending) would obviously NOT work to resuscitate the Republican-damaged economy. Without a clue, the only way they could feel relevant is to try to get the public to forget that Bush existed, and blame President Obama. Raising taxes on the rich makes sense and is long overdue. We have to spend to revive, and since this added to the Republican-created deficit, Republicans continue to scream ONLY because a Democrat is President.

Republicans are pathetic. This is why they will be annihilated this year as President Obama easily gets his second term. We need to get those worthless Republicans OUT of Congress and get those pathetic Right-leaning goons on the Supreme Court to step down. It is only then that we will finally see real progress as President Obama effectively resolves many of the problems that plague this nation, problems Republicans have NEVER had a clue about fixing.

Republicans scream about the deficit ONLY when a Democrat is running the country. The stench they represent continues to plague this country.

[wutitiz]

For 8 years of Bush, Democrats screamed like Stellar's Jays about the deficit. Then when Obama presided over deficits 3-4 times higher, they fluttered away in a hundred different directions. Is that what you meant to say, Lex?