Sadly, due to Republican obstruction in Congress, we have not been able to pay down the incredible deficits amassed by the George W. Bush administration.
What was the biggest Bush deficit? (Remember, if you're going to include a deficit that included TARP out-going payments, then you'll need to add the TARP payback amounts to the Obama deficits that he benefited from.)
What was the smallest Obama deficit?
What was the average Bush deficit?
What was the average Obama deficit?
And what exactly did the Republicans block that would have either: 1) lowered spending, or 2) increased revenue? Remember that Obama did succeed in expiring the Bush top tax rate reductions, so the highest marginal rate is now actually above (when you include new surtaxes) what the top rate was when Bush was inaugurated in January 2001.
Are you being deliberately obtuse?
The George W. Bush administration jammed through a pharmaceutical corporate welfare law, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and two sets of tax cuts that went almost entirely to the wealthy and did nothing to improve the economy.
None of these programs - none - were funded at the time. (It only took a few years for the Republicans to regain their sense of urgency when it came to funding veterans' programs, hurricane relief, and health care benefits for 9/11 first responders. Apparently we don't have the money to look after our veterans, only the money to senselessly send them into an illegal war on the basis of fabricated evidence. Disgusting. Treason. Criminal.)
These commitments rolled over to the next administration, which has been left unable to properly address this criminal spending due to Republican refusal to even consider increases on marginal tax rates.
You don't have to convince me that extending even part of the Bush Debt, those fiscally reckless tax cuts, was one of Obama's worst compromises with the Republican leadership.
