The Record of George W. Bush:Budget

From dKosopedia

1 Federal Deficit
- 1.1 Analysis
- 1.2 Graphs
2 Debt Ceiling
3 President Bush's FY2005 Proposed Budget
4 Veto Record
5 References

Federal Deficit

Analysis

"The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes – primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution – has not worked. The fiscal reversal that has taken place under your leadership is so extreme that it would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. The federal budget surplus of over $200 billion that we enjoyed in the year 2000 has disappeared, and we are now facing a massive annual deficit of over $400 billion. In fact, if transfers from the Social Security trust fund are excluded, the federal deficit is even worse – well in excess of a half a trillion dollars this year alone. Although some members of your administration have suggested that the mountain of new debt accumulated on your watch is mainly the consequence of 9-11 and the war on terror, budget experts know that this is simply false. Your economic policies have played a significant role in driving this fiscal collapse. And the economic proposals you have suggested for a potential second term – from diverting Social Security contributions into private accounts to making the recent tax cuts permanent – only promise to exacerbate the crisis by further narrowing the federal revenue base." (150+ Economics and Business Professors, http://www.openlettertothepresident.org/, 10/4/2004)

Graphs

Source: Reuters, "Record Budget Deficit for 2004", 10/14/2004.

Source: OMB Watch, "Mid-Session Review Confirms Continuation of Record Deficits", 7/30/04.

Source: Budget Explorer

Debt Ceiling

"Congress has raised the debt ceiling three times in three years, raising it most recently by $984 billion in May 2003." (EDMUND L. ANDREWS, "As U.S. Debt Ceiling Is Reached, Bush Administration Seeks to Raise It Once Again", New York Times, October 15, 2004.

President Bush's FY2005 Proposed Budget

"If enacted, the proposed changes to the budget process would likely mean significant reductions in domestic spending, permanency and expansion of all of the president’s tax changes, and bigger deficits. The modifications would essentially hobble a system that, during the 1990’s, contributed to record surpluses and a more financially secure government." (J.S. Irons, OMB Watch, "OMB Proposed Changes Would Create Unbalanced, Flawed Budget Process", 2/27/2003, p. 2).

Veto Record

Not only has President Bush signed every single spending bill that has arrived at his desk, he's signed every single bill that has arrived at his desk.

In fact, President Bush is the first President since 1850 to have not vetoed a single bill. 150 years. 150 years since Millard Fillmore (1850-53), a member of the Whig party who worked with the 31st and 32nd Congresses, didn't veto a bill. If you consider full-term Presidents, then John Quincy Adams was the last President 175 years ago.

Seven other Presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Warren G. Harding) have been in the situation where they were a member of the same party that controlled both the House and the Senate throughout their term -- and they averaged 13 vetoes per Congress each (note this average excludes Franklin D. Roosevelt who had an enormous 106 vetoes for 6 Congresses -- the most vetoes ever for a President). President Bush was also in this situation, yet he did not veto any bills.

Further results, data, and sources available on this issue as researched by drh.

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