Oh, so much to laugh at and so little time!

Cut earmarks…like the ones you laced into the Health Care bill to get key votes?

He walked into a $1.2 Trillion debt…yet in ONE YEAR it is over $12 TRILLION!

Oh, my gracious, what times we live in!

Sorry, Sick & Tired, but you have incorrectly compared the budget deficit ($1.4 trillion at 30 September 2009) to the overall debt - now something over $12 trillion, as you state.  I perceive you are dissatisfied with President Obama’s policies; but he has not increased either the deficit or the debt by a factor of ten in his first year in office.

Also, for better or worse, it is not President Obama who has put earmarks into the Health Care bill to get votes, but congressional leadership, particularly in the Senate.

#2 Mr. Hamilton, you are correct.  I was in a hurry and I did overstate the numbers.  Mr. Obama has not increased the debt or the deficit by a factor of 10. 

Obama has increased the deficit by over triple, breaking Bush’s record 2008 deficit of $455 B and driving it up to the 2009 deficit level of $1,417 B.  Now, before you say that the 2009 deficit is all Bush’s fault, let me remind you that both houses of congress were controlled by the Democrat party from 2006 to 2008 and that then Senator Obama voted for the increased spending…so, President Obama has full ownership of the current tripling of the Bush deficit (just as Bush fully owns the increased deficit under his terms of office).  In one year, the Obama administration and the Democrat controlled congress have increased the debt by $1 T.

Now you said…

Also, for better or worse, it is not President Obama who has put earmarks into the Health Care bill to get votes, but congressional leadership, particularly in the Senate.

I don’t think your statement is entirely accurate.

Harry Reid, Obama negotiate health bill at White House
By Lisa Mascaro
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 | 4:14 p.m.
“WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spent most of Wednesday holed up at the White House with President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders negotiating the landmark health care bill.”

“What grew into an unusual all-day session began as Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Obama at 9:30 a.m. They were joined later in the morning by congressional leaders and chairmen of the health committees.

Since Republicans have maintained near unanimous opposition to the bill, Democrats are essentially negotiating the final version among themselves. Talks paused for about an hour in mid-afternoon as the House voted, but resumed and continued into the evening.”

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/13/harry-reid-obama-negotiate-health-bill-white-house/

Thank you, Sick & Tired, you make some salient points.  I am willing and indeed interested to discuss them with you further.  I will not do so, however, unless you are willing to refer to the Democratic Party by its correct, official name.

Are we on?

Mr. Hamilton,

...both houses of congress were controlled by the Democrat party from 2006 to 2008…

Sorry (force of habit), that should read:

...both houses of congress were controlled by the Democratic  Party from 2006 to 2008…

I would be interested in your perspective.  You should know going in that I am not a Bush apologist or enamored of the Republicrats…er…Republicans either.  I say this as a former member of the RNC and one that remains registered as an R , only because of sheer laziness about going down to the City Clerk’s office to change it to an I .

Thanks, S&T.  I think we are fated to disagree on public policy generally; but it seems to me that when neither business nor consumers are willing to spend money in a recession, the government must be prepared to do so.  Politicians of both parties clearly find it hard to be disciplined at any time; but the Bush administration’s insistence on cutting taxes while conducting two wars was a particularly poor stewardship.  As for health care reform, which is absolutely necessary (the only insurance available to me as an employee of the Diocese of Michigan will probably increase by 18 to 20% next year), massive bribes to Senators Landrieu and Nelson would not have been necessary if any, ANY Republican senator had been willing to vote for cloture, even voting against the bill subsequently to that.  The Democrats have compromised a great deal on HCR - no single payer, no public option, no repeal of the antitrust exemption for insurance companies.  As a leftist (perfectly happy to admit it), I personally think President Obama’s efforts at bipartisanship go too far; but it does not seem to me that the Republicans are reciprocating in the slightest.  Nor do I believe that they are serious about fiscal discipline, which they had the opportunity to exercise without opposition from 2000 to 2006.  Possibly both of us are unhappy with President Obama, but for very different reasons, neh?