There are massive problems with the link you posted. Here the the two primary ones
1. The author is a "policital editor"...he doesn't understand the situation...nor does he care...his sole goal is to push a political agenda.
2. The public is incredibly misinformed when it comes to all matters as it relates to the deficit, debt, spending revenue and the federal budget. Every post on this site proves that.
Now on to the particulars...the author immediately refers to it as "Obama's spending". Right there, you are being fed a political agenda. Not an honest discussion of the facts. Why? Because if the author provided you with an honest discussion of the facts you would be scared poopless and deman ACTUAL action instead of meaningless political rhetoric.
The author then calls the factual data related to the so called "Bush tax cuts", the wars, Medicare Part D and recession "laughable". What he fails to mention is that a well known and widely cited 2001 10 yr projection by the CBO showed budget surpluses that would be of such magnitude that the US had the ability to wipe out the entire debt by 2011. The author wants you to believe that the tax cuts, war spending, unfunded Medicare Part D and the recession had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the the ending of the surpluses and return to deficit spending. In the warped view of the far right and the majority of posters on here, nothing that happened between 2001 and the inaugural of President Obama had one thing to do with our present situation. (Even Larry Gude will tell you this is nonsense).
Added to that the author wants you to believe that the day President Obama took office every penny of spending was solely his fault. Only a complete fool would believe that.
But, allow me to expand on that idiotic commentary. I've said this before... 70% of federal spending goes to 4 MANDATORY areas. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, defense and interest on the debt. Please explain which of these programs were forced upon us by President Obama. SS was passed in the 30s...Medicare/Medicaid in the 60s...interest on the debt and national defense are addressed in the Constitution (Yes...there are actually whole parts of the constituion that don't have a damn thing to do with owning weapons built for mass murder!)
Everything else the federal govt does is covered in the other 30% of spending. Please explain which of these programs were forced upon us by President Obama that resulted in our annual deficit? The stimulus? Yup...roughly $830 billion passed 4 years ago...."Obamacare" nope...that doesn't start until 2014. Air traffic control? The Federal Highway system? Food safety? The Centers for Disease Control? NASA? Mine Safety? OSHA? The line the author is feeding you must result in President Obama having thought up and passed each and every federal program that accounts for that other 30%.
According to your link...the deficit (and all spending) is solely the responsibility of the current President. And you believe that?
Now on to some additional points:
The author says we need to reduce spending. He is absolutley correct. What does he suggest we do? (nothing) Remember 70% of spending goes to Social Security Medicare Medicad, interest and defense. According to Alan Blinder(1)...we take in enough revenue to cover 74% of spending. So we have 70% going to those 4 mandatory areas...30% to everything else and a 26% deficit.
Are you starting to see the problem or are you just going to bury your head in the sand like everyone else here?
This is not a problem than can be solved solely by cutting spending. If it was the author would say what he could cut. But he doesn't...why?
This is also not a problem that can be solved by rasing revenue alone...as the left would have you believe. That should also be obvious. Don't get fooled for one second into believing that the so called "Bush tax cuts" were made "permanent" by the fiscal cliff deal. We can't afford it...unless of course we want the Baby Boomers to go without Social Security checks and Medidare coverage.
medicare, btw, is out of money in 2022...in that year Medciare costs to the govt are expected to exceed $1trillion per year.
All your author did was give you about 25% of the story...he told you half truths about the debt and deficit...decried it a an Obama spending problem...then didn't even have the balls to note one thing he would cut.
Oh wait...I forgot about the author's "go to the mat on the CR fight". Remember the spending and revenue ratios? 26% deficit....30% of the budget to non-manadatory spending (the areas covered by CRs). Is he willing to kill every other federal program and agency? For that is what it would take.
The general population of the US wants every program and benefit provided to them at full value and doesn't want to send a single cent to DC to pay for them. We want SS checks...new knees and hips...aircraft carriers...predator drones...safe food...safe planes trains and automobiles...new roads and schools...but expect someone esle to pay for it...and then complain when we have to borrow the money from someone else.
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Econbrowser: Debt-ceiling economics and politics