Yesterday Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) posted an image on Twitter of President Obama and an obviously unhappy baby with the caption “That awkward moment when you realize that your share of the dept is $55,260”:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
This baby’s face says it all. [….] 7:02 AM – 22 Jul 2014
There were responses:
KCLiveMusicBlog @KCLiveMusicBlog
@RepHartzler actually I think Obama just told him about the policies you supported. 7:12 AM – 22 Jul 2014
Mary Reed @marsam22reed
@RepHartzler Return free dollars of FARM SUBSIDIES you received, to help bring down the debt. 9:58 AM – 22 Jul 2014
Ouch. Social media is always interesting.
So is this, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Economic Downturn and Legacy of Bush Policies Continue to Drive Large Deficits
Economic Recovery Measures, Financial Rescues Have Only Temporary Impact
By Kathy Ruffing and Joel Friedman
Updated February 28, 2013
….Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration – tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for nearly $6 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019 (including associated debt-service costs of $1.4 trillion). By 2019, we estimate that these two policies will account for almost half – over $8 trillion – of the $17 trillion in debt that will be owed under current policies.[7] (See Figure 2.) These impacts easily dwarf the stimulus and financial rescues, which will account for less than $2 trillion (just over 10 percent) of the debt at that time. Furthermore, unlike those temporary costs, these inherited policies do not fade away as the economy recovers.[8]
Without the economic downturn and the fiscal policies of the previous Administration, the budget would be roughly in balance in this decade. Even if we regard the economic downturn as unavoidable, we would have entered it with a much smaller debt – allowing us to absorb the recession’s damage to the budget and the cost of economic recovery measures, while keeping debt comfortably below 50 percent of GDP, as Figure 2 suggests. That would have put the nation on a much sounder footing to address the demographic challenges and the cost pressures in health care that darken the long-run fiscal outlook….
And that’s how we get there.
Representative Hartzler (r) should have posted a photo of former President George W. Bush with the unhappy baby.