The Federal Deficit in 2006 - the last year spending was
controlled by a Republican House & Senate:
Total Debt = $8,680,224,380,086 – which was 64% of GDP
Federal Deficit as of the end of
2011:
Total Debt = $15,125,898,976,397 –
was 98.7% of GDP
Total National Debt as of Today = $15,981,490,847,043
– which is 102% of GDP
This is the first time in our nation’s
history that our Federal Debt has exceeded 100% of our annual National Economy
(GDP). Our problem is quite simply – SPENDING!
Oh... and please do not try to compare this deficit period
to that of Presidents Reagan and Clinton.
While Clinton’s deficits were much smaller (less than half
of these numbers), both presidents had Pro-Economic growth policies with positive
job creation and very low unemployment.
In the case of Reagan, it was the longest peacetime economic
expansion in modern American history with:
- 20 million new jobs were created.
- Inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 4.1%.
- The net worth of middle class families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually grew by 27%.
- Real gross national product rose 26%.
Our national spending and deficit nightmare is precisely what Governor Chris Christie was
addressing in his speech last night when he said:
“Our leaders today have decided it is more important to be
popular, to do what is easy and say "yes," rather than to say no when
"no" is what's required… … Now we must lead the way our citizens
live. To lead as my mother insisted I live, not by avoiding truths, especially
the hard ones, but by facing up to them and being the better for it… … They
said it was impossible to cut taxes in a state where taxes were raised 115
times in eight years. That it was impossible to balance a budget at the same
time, with an $11 billion deficit. Three years later, we have three balanced
budgets with lower taxes.” (Speaking of New Jersey)
Speaking of the Democrats – Christie said:
“…They believe that the American people don't want to hear
the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need to be coddled by
big government. They believe the American people are content to live the lie
with them… … They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their
grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with
misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election. Their
plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as
they are behind the wheel of power.
It is time for REAL CHANGE. It is time to return to fiscal
conservative principles and the values of hard work, don’t spend more than you
make, tell people the truth even if it hurts. It is time to remind this
generation of American’s that the generation that came before us NEVER shied
away from hard work, sacrifice and doing the tough thing in order to make our
nation and lives better for our kids!
Let’s return to the fiscal pro-growth, pro free enterprise; Pro-American
policies that ushered the in longest economic expansion in modern American
history. These were the policies of a Reagan Generation.
SOME SIMPLE INDISPUTABLE FACTS
FACT #1 - The American System of Free Enterprise has done
more to lift the poor out of their poverty than any other government program or
economic system in the history of the world. This is precisely why people of
other countries have come here in droves for about 200 years now.
FACT #2 – More jobs have been created under conservative
leadership since WWII than under progressive leadership.
How
many jobs were created under the Reagan Administration?
In 1986 and by the latter year the nation was well into a
96-month-long economic recovery during which 20 million new jobs were created -- the longest peacetime economic expansion in modern
American history.
- 20 million new jobs were created; Inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 4.1%
- During Reagan’s Administration, growth in government spending plummeted from 10% ... The seemingly insatiable Federal government was on a much-needed diet.
- The net worth of families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually grew by 27%.
- Real gross national product rose 26%.
- The prime interest rate was slashed by more than half, from an unprecedented 21.5% in January 1981 to 10% in August 1988.
- Given actual rates of inflation, through 1987, the Reagan tax cuts saved the median-income two-earner American family of four close to $9,000 in taxes from what it would have owed in 1980.
What
about the 1990’s under Bill Clinton – With a Republican Controlled House &
Senate
Clinton ushered in a robust economic growth by COOPERATING
WITH CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP.
QUESTION – Is President Obama
cooperating with Conservative Leadership? Rhetorical question – the answer is
no!
Clinton cooperated with Republicans in the 1990’s to:
·
Cut spending – Obama’s plan dramatically
increases spending.
·
Lower personal and corporate taxes – Obama plans
to raise taxes.
·
Usher in welfare reform that ultimately reduced
the welfare rolls by 54% and put millions into jobs – Obama recently wiped away
the foundations that created success in welfare reform - under Obama’s
leadership the welfare rolls have more than doubled and are at record highs.
In the mid to end of 1980’s the economy set new records of
growth that improved the lives of millions of Americans. This carried over into
the 1990’s. In 1996 the economy was still growing.
Today the economy is in deep-deep trouble and may be on the
verge of getting much worse. Our economy is not the economy of 1996. In fact,
it is not even close. Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich noted in
the Wall Street Journal recently that in the spring of 1995 the economy was
adding about 200,000 jobs a month. By February of 1996, we added 434,000 jobs
in just one month. Unemployment was 5.5 percent and declining. (It dropped to
4.2 percent within months.)
Comparisons between the negotiations of a Clinton
Administration and a Republican controlled Congress – taking us from a
recession and into a booming economy in the 1990s and those taking place in the
Obama Depression today ignore one of the most important factors. What factors
are those? After taking a bad economy and making it worse while adding
trillions to the debt, President Obama's radical ideology, hostility to
financial success, and bureaucratic micro-management have combined to virtually
guarantee he will not fix the economy.
Under these
circumstances – surely the Progressive Liberal Democrats do not actually possess
the moral high ground. How is it moral and beneficial to people when your
policies have made it worse for the poor and the middle class? How is moral or
OK to refuse proposals to go forward in the Senate – to refuse the two party
system of Representative Government to do its job?
Obama is not working with, cooperating with; or negotiating
at any level of good faith with Conservatives. Instead he is demonizing them,
calling them “The Enemy” and refusing to reach out and work with them. The
conservative republicans have offered up no less than 27 different proposals in
good faith to the Obama Administration and Harry Reid in the Senate. Harry Reid has refused to allow even one of
these proposals to go to the floor of the senate much less to committee.
Obama, Reid and other Democrats then have the audacity to go on national TV and
say that the Republicans have no plan; or have not offered any alternatives.
This is pure lies!
So the next time some Progressive
Liberal Democrat tells us some sob story about the poor single mother with
nowhere to turn - or the unemployed middle class worker who is losing his home
and having trouble feeding and caring for his family – just note that they will
use this imagery to get you to feel emotional about government taking care of
these people. They want you to feel moral outrage over these situations so that
you will vote for them. But what they have done has NOT HELPED, and what they
are proposing to do will not help people – it will make things worse! Don’t
fall for it!
Wake-up America. Vote Obama out and Romney / Ryan in! Let conservative
policies do what they have always done – usher in robust economic growth and
more economic freedom and opportunities for the poor and the middle class.
That is the moral to do!
Resources &
Links
WHY MAKE THE MORAL CASE FOR FREE ENTERPRISE?
Brooks, Arthur C. (2012-05-08). The Road to Freedom: How to
Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.
