When President Barack Obam walked into the oval office a 1.2 TRILLION deficit was waiting for him there, a gift and legacy from President George W. Bush. The lie and challenge by a certain Texas Congressman that Obama’s deficit is ten times Bush’s deficit was blown to smithereens by FactCheck
What president had the largest surplus and best record in reducing the deficit? Why, President William Jefferson Clinton, his presidency had a 230 BILLION surplus in 2000 , which was Bill Clinton’s third year of paying down the federal deficit. THAT probably goes a long way to explain Bill Clinton’s enduring popularity.
Looking at Federal Debt by U.S. Presidential Term, it is Republicans who ensure that their friends in the elite continue to amass wealth who have ballooned the deficit. Billionaires kids don’t care about the deficit; they will remain living the life of the NeoGilded age. My kids won’t.
The underlying data for this elegant table does appear to validate the figures. If anyone can use the federally published figures to debunk this, let me know. I cannot.
To reverse these trends, and pay down the deficit what is needed is productivity in the United States, including a rebuilt and protected manufacturing sector. To the extent that we import finished products, and have to import more manufactured items than we export, the deficit will not go down.
And that is even without accounting for the impact of over seas ownership and remittences. These remittences prop up many countries. Remittences are the real driver of economic immigration. Once example is that Mexican workers sent 23 BILLION dollars to Mexico in 2006 and that money is not available to pay down the deficit, fund social security, etc. Several countries are dependent on remittences from their workers in other countries, not just the United States, but analyzing that in full is beyond the scope of this post.
One reason for not supporting casinos is similar. The major players are Malaysian and the profits will go overseas, not be reinvested in the USA, not pay down the deficit, and not lead to sustainable jobs.
So Congressman Tierney and Governor Patrick are right about MassMEP and it is the country and state where value is added where there will be jobs and reduced deficits, not countries and states who basically just consume.
