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Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: The real party of big government
Source: Orange County Register
URL Source: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/d ... arty-1920569-national-trillion
Published: Nov 12, 2007
Author: none listed
Post Date: 2007-11-16 12:31:28 by Alan Chapman
Keywords: None
Views: 662
Comments: 50

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin famously said, "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." The same principle – that the public can more easily grasp a small tragedy than a huge one – can be applied to budget matters. Americans can get rightly riled about a public official who misuses several thousand of their hard-earned dollars, but it's harder to get them riled about more massive abuses. A thousand bucks is a tragedy, whereas trillions of dollars are too hard to comprehend, let alone to get angry over.

Well, Americans better learn to get angry soon, given that the federal debt has now hit nine trillion dollars, which is a heck of a lot of money, even by government standards. That debt, which includes obligations such as Treasury bonds, T-bills and T-notes, has soared from $5.6 trillion when George W. Bush took office. The president so far has pushed to increase the debt limit five times during his presidency, making the current debt limit $9.8 trillion. At current trends, especially with the rate of spending to fund the Iraq war, it won't be too long before President Bush is asking to increase that limit again.

When will it stop? The annual budget deficit also is a problem, although $163 billion dollars sounds tiny compared with numbers followed by a dozen zeroes. These numbers reflect an amazing amount of red ink, a testament to the way the federal government continues to grow and to the way politicians – especially Republicans – recognize no bounds to the amount of money the government can borrow and spend. It's ironic that although, rhetorically speaking, the Democratic Party is the party of big government, in reality, the Republican Party at the national level has proved itself to be the true party of bigger and more expensive government.

The Libertarian Party noted, in a statement released Thursday, "It took from George Washington to Ronald Reagan for the national debt to hit the $1 trillion mark – a period of more than 190 years. Now, 27 years later, the national debt has risen more than 800 percent under three Republicans and one Democratic president. However, only $1.2 trillion of national debt was accrued during President Bill Clinton's administration, meaning the bulk of national debt comes from Republican administrations."

It's about time for candidates in the two major parties to stop making promises about how much more of your money they want to spend and start outlining serious plans to rein the deficit and the debt.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 19.

#2. To: Alan Chapman (#0)

To be fair, most of the root causes of our debt are due to Democrat administrations. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid comprise the bulk of the federal budget and all were enacted by Democrats.

But even talking about it in terms of Democrat vs. Republican is an exercise in category error. Both parties by their actions represent the same group of people, which do not include mere plebes like you and I. They are really one party, the Corporatist party.

thoughtomator  posted on  2007-11-16   13:07:37 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: thoughtomator (#2)

Republican presidents had it in their power to veto appropriations for all of those programs so it makes no difference who enacted them. They sustained them.

Alan Chapman  posted on  2007-11-16   13:15:59 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Alan Chapman (#3)

And likewise, Democrat presidents could have done the same, and Democrat Congresses could have failed to continue to appropriate. They're just two faces of the same beast, whose true name is Leviathan.

thoughtomator  posted on  2007-11-16   13:34:08 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: thoughtomator, Alan Chapman (#4)

ghostdogtxn  posted on  2007-11-16   13:51:20 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: ghostdogtxn (#5)

I believe the Konservative tone and opposition from the "class of 94" did keep a lid on the more grandiose clinton stuff that Jorge the W has since pulled off...

FOH  posted on  2007-11-16   13:53:38 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: FOH, Original_Intent, FormerLurker (#6)

Title: Where The REAL Focus Should Be, For This Site, And Others.

TwentyTwelve  posted on  2007-11-16   14:29:00 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: TwentyTwelve (#11)

6. To: tommythemadartist (#0)

For as much as you all might hate the people who support Ron Paul, they are not your enemy.

If you are not for continuing the war against Islam, we have NOTHING in common.

I'll have to decide whether to vote for Hillary should Paul get the nomination.

Nearly everything else is negotiable. But we are not stopping the war.

DAnconia55 posted on 2007-11-16 13:40:02 ET Reply Trace

The NeoCons would vote for Hitlery first...should tell all you need to know.

FOH  posted on  2007-11-16   14:57:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: FOH (#13)

The NeoCons would vote for Hitlery first...should tell all you need to know.

Led by Bush and Julie drag Queen Annie.

Cynicom  posted on  2007-11-16   14:59:58 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: Cynicom (#14)

80% of D.C. are quislings...maybe more.

FOH  posted on  2007-11-16   15:01:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#19. To: FOH (#15)

FOH...

If you paid attention in history class, (cough cough)

When the Communists took over Russia, they gave the Duma until sundown to leave town or be shot.

Perhaps there is a lesson there for us?

Cynicom  posted on  2007-11-16   15:19:13 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 19.

#23. To: Cynicom (#19)

Hmmmm

FOH  posted on  2007-11-16 15:46:22 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 19.

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