Obama Raised the Debt more than all Presidents Combined

US Federal Debt Reasons

Claim: Obama has raised the debt more than all previous presidents combined.

Variation: Obama has spent more than all previous presidents combined.

Fact: The second claim is absurdly false since it attributes rising debt to spending as opposed to lowered revenues (the real cause). This first claim is almost “true” if you start the clock at the beginning of President Bush’s last year in office, as opposed to when he left office (or more properly, starting the clock at the beginning of 2010, since the first budget under President Obama would have been set in October of 2009) AND attribute all causes of debt increases to a president’s actions, as opposed to things (s)he can’t control (like inherited recessions, wars and tax cuts). In reality, the fiscal year begins the year prior, and the rising debt has mostly to due with lowered revenues from tax cuts and the 2008 recession, as opposed to increased spending. The claim also avoids any adjustment for inflation or GDP, which any honest comparison would do.Continue reading

tea party racism

The Tea Party’s Take on Tax Rates and Size of Government

For some time now, the Tea Party has been making a ruckus over the size of government, tax rates and the alleged debt/deficit ‘crisis.’   Rather than understanding that; our tax rates and government as a percentage of GDP are lower than virtually any other nation in the industrialized world; or that the current deficit/debt crisis has more to do with a loss of revenues from tax cuts and a recession than any increased spending; or that the wealthiest Americans pay the lowest in top marginal tax rates since the great depression; or that the in drop these tax rates on the wealthy have coincided with more wealth going to the top and a loss of real income for the middle and lower classes, they would prefer to rally under the mistaken notion that our government is treading on Orwellian waters.Continue reading