Dear Editor,
A recent contributor to this column made the statement that “nobama’s new budget is $4 trillion dollars. The National Debt is $18.6 trillion and will be over $20 trillion when the dear leader thankfully leaves office. That’s more than every President since George Washington.”
First of all this contributor needs to look at all the facts. In 2001 when Bush took office the national debt was 5.9 trillion dollars, when he left office the debt had doubled to 10.1 trillion. Since Obama took office the debt has increased to 17.1 trillion.
If you look at the costs of Bush’s 10 years of unfunded wars, the costs of which continued into the Obama Administration, you will find that accounts for the majority of the debt America now owes. In addition some of the largest tax cuts were made under Bush that further exacerbated the debt problem by reducing revenue. You really can’t fight two wars without spending someone’s money, so Bush decided to just put that on the “Credit Card” and let someone else worry about it.
Now if you look at the deficit (which is not the same as debt) and has everything to do with the budget that this contributor seems to have a problem with, has DECREASED. Under Bush the deficit INCREASED from 341 billion to 1.294 trillion. Under Obama the deficit has steadily decreased from 1.294 trillion to 483 billion in 2014. So under Obama, the deficit has been cut by nearly two thirds.
You know FACTS can be such pesky things. So if this contributor is so happy to see Obama go, I shutter to think what they consider to be better!
Robert Stiles
Apalachin, N.Y.
