Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Who Really Caused the Budget Deficit?

UPDATED: A reader asked for the source of the chart. It's from a New York Times analysis described as follows: It's based on data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. . . . It demonstrates the utter incoherence of being very concerned about a structural federal deficit but ruling out of consideration the policy that was largest single contributor to that deficit, namely the Bush-era tax cuts. An additional significance of the chart: it identifies policy changes, the things over which Congress and Administration have some control, as opposed to largely external shocks -- like the repercussions of the 9/11 attacks or the deep worldwide recession following the 2008 financial crisis.

The dishonesty of the Congressional Republicans and Speaker Boehner is beyond shocking. As the graph above demonstrates, it the failed Bush/GOP policy of tax breaks for the wealthy and the fiasco in Afghanistan launched by the Chimperator that are the largest causes of the nation's budget woes. Would that Obama and Democrats had the spines to call the GOP on these lies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Before I take this information on face value can you provide us with the source from which the data on this graph was derived? Thanks.

Jack

Michael-in-Norfolk said...

I added the update in response to Jack's question about the source of the chart. I hope it answers readers' questions.