UPDATE: We’ve had a great response to this blog. So we decided to take it a step farther. We hit the 8-28 rallies and quizzed attendees in their government spending IQ. Can they match the spending facts with the right President? (The answers might surprise you.) Watch here.
At first glance former President Bush and President Obama seem like opposites when it comes to economic policy making. Talk of Bush as a free-marketeer and deregulator abounds as Obama’s reputation as a big spender and intervener grow stronger by the day. A closer look shows their economic policies have more in common than meets the eye.
5. They love to spend. Bush passed a $3 trillion budget for 2009. Obama posted a $3.5 trillion budget in 2010. Bush doubled the debt to almost $6 trillion and Obama’s plans would leave us with an IOU of an additional $8.5 trillion by 2020.
4. They shop at the same stores. Contrary to popular belief, defense and homeland security spending only made up about 40 percent of Bush’s new spending. He increased spending across most non-defense categories – like education, Medicare, Medicaid, income security and regional development – by four to six times the rate of inflation. In Obama’s first half year in office, as he demanded a departure from the “investment deficit” years under Bush, these budgets rose another 70 percent or 40 times the rate of inflation.
3. They dabble with stimulants. In 2001 and 2008, Bush spent billions on rebates to stimulate consumer spending. In 2009, Obama upped the ante with his $862 billion stimulus package.
2. They give sweetheart deals to failing corporations. Obama carried out Bush’s unpopular $700 billion bailout for failing corporations. Together, the presidents have bailed out over 600 businesses since Spring 2008.
1. They enjoy regulating in their free time. Once again contrary to popular belief, President Bush was the biggest regulator since Richard Nixon. Under his leadership in 2007, the number of pages of regulation added to the Federal Register reached an all-time high of 78,090 – a 21 percent increase from Bush’s first year. And spending on regulatory activities rose to $42 billion in 2009 – a 62 percent increase. Since taking office, Obama has proposed a large and sweeping increase in regulation that many worry could lead to another financial crisis in the future.
Despite rhetoric that suggests the contrary, President Obama’s economic policies are strikingly more of the same failed policies that Bush tried before him. This is unfortunate because, as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman claims, the last decade has seen declining private-sector employment and declining median household income.
It’s about time someone is pointing out how similar these two presidents really are.
And the Obama foreign policy – WWBD.
What would Bushie do.
Yes, I agree with you entirely. Bush and Obama seem like clones to me. And on more things that spending. I can’t tell any difference in their Foreign Policy – latest reports are that Obama is only going to withdraw about 90,000 troops from Iran – out of about 125,000 in country, so ‘End the War in Iraq’ isn’t going to happen in his administration any more than it would have if we had had four more years of Bush. Obama also hasn’t made any effort to get rid of the Patriot Act and the various and Bush’s various and sundry abridgements to our civil liberties. Indeed he is working hard to avoid investigating or prosecuting anyone for torture. He is continuing the Bush Administration policy of targeting individuals for assassination far from any field of battle, and without providing any proof to the world that they are guilty of anything – the simple assertion that they are ‘terrorists’ is all that seems to be required. And one reads in the paper (Glenn Greenwald at Salon) that his Administration is carrying on a hitherto secret Bush Administration policy of also assassinating American citizens abroad who the Administration deems to be ‘a threat to Americans’ – a new low point as far as I am aware in the erosion of our civil liberties.
Isn’t deregulation the biggest reason we are in this mess? Oh yeah but good idea to let that keep going ??? huh?
Deregulation? The Federal Register stands at nearly 80,000 pages costing American business an estimated regulatory tax of over $1.1 Trillion. Our medical and financial services industries bear the brunt of those regulations and the result? Financial failure of both sectors with hospital bankruptcies and bank failures and in the case of the medical market escalating costs and declining services.
So what does the government call for? More regulations! My what a shocking surprise. Dismantle the free market with excessive regulations, disrupting and crippling it and then call for even more regulations because the already intrusive regulatory climate is not intrusive enough.
Gee, I wonder if the government call for regulatory expansion of an already heavily regulated market has anything to do with increasing the power and reach of government and their capacities?
Naaah……they are just looking out for the common person. You know, like they always do. Right? I must be insane to suggest that our altruistic politicians would have anything other than the well-being of the public in mind I guess.
Sorry, my bad.
The #1 problem is the country being directed and controlled by a central bank.
The #2 problem is a federal government that doesn’t know it’s limits and continues to write laws it has no authority to write. Or spend money it has no authority to spend. Or place restrictions it has no right to create.
Re: Mike on #1 & #2 problems:
YOU ARE SOOOOOOO RIGHT! Hats off to you.
@Frank
You say “Deregulation? The Federal Register stands at nearly 80,000 pages costing American business an estimated regulatory tax of over $1.1 Trillion.”
How the hell do you equate pages of regulation to cost? Further, how do you come to the $1.1 trillion figure of regulatory tax? A source provided to come to those numbers would be something I’d like to see.
But nice spin though. Trying to make it sound like regulations hurt common people and help politicians get their hands on control. That’s a good one. I gotta give it to you for spinning that one 180.
Explain to me how the repeal of Glass-Steagall act helped out the those poor bankers and how China patterned their entire financial system off that one regulation that we repealed.
Why do I get the feeling you’re the webmaster of this site Frank and this comment will never see the light of day?
The funny thing is how easy it is to see that you’re educated and at the same time spinning things to your political agenda.
Let’s get one thing straight: People aren’t ethical. Corporations aren’t people. People run corporations. If people don’t have regulations they will always choose to enrich themselves and screw their fellow man. That’s just human nature. To suggest otherwise is false and this is exactly how Julius Caesar came into power.
Not much has changed in the 2000 years since Caesar. Break the stereotype Frank. Fess up to who you really are and what you’re really trying to do with your post. I see you Frank. I see right through you.
@ Frank
One last thing… It’s not just generic “regulations” that are the problem. It’s getting the right regulations. Measure regulation and deregulation by their effective good, not in generic terms like pages. Any regulation proposed by a lobby group is not a good one and most all regulations in the USA are proposed by lobby groups. That’s why Bush and Obama are so much the same and their regulations don’t do anything good. They’re just puppets on the strings controlled by the lobbies. Let me write the regulations and you will see the corrupt hanging from the gallows.
I dont see the rol of the Federal Reserve, the big wall street moguls and the big banks on your bancrumpting America analisis. Not everything is coming out of government!!! Where do illegal drug traffiking, illegal war spending fits on your calculations.
Are yuo real or are you one of this organization paid by the moguls the buld in smoking scrreens and hide the real resposible of the crisis. Or are you an anti Obama sacoegotter to deviate the attention from how the private sector ie oil cartel, pharma cartel, health insurance cxartel, wall srtet ar destroying America. Review your 1930 history.
Your analisis falls short of all the parts involved in waht seems to be a private control of America on the making.
Come out of the closet and speak out who you are.
Respond
Your all wrong. It is the people that haven’t been paying attention to what is going on in Washington that got us in the position we are in. For decades we have said, “What ya gonna do, they are in power”. Well, we put them there, and left them there. So, thank God for Obamacare, that earthquake made us pull our heads out of the sand. Its not to late to change things, but its going to take honest to goodness work to clean up the mess that we, the American people, and let happen.
Democrats want big govt and everyone to pay for it. Republicans want big govt and someone else to pay for it.
The problem is spending, not taxes. Next time a politician starts talking about cutting taxes, stop them and ask them to talk about spending. Cutting taxes is easy, and gets votes, but hurts us all in the long run if spending cuts don’t go along with it.
If it comes down to only 2 options, then paying for big govt with big taxes IS better than having big debt with big govt.
Remember: Spending Spending Spending. Stop talking about taxes taxes taxes.
Americans are fools and Our Congress,Senate and House APPrOPRIACTIONS COMMITEE do not have a clue.Why would you pay 6 FIGURE INCOMES TO CORPORATE EMPLOYEES AND 7 DIGIT INCOMES TO CEO’s of Haliburton,TITAN,BLACK-WATER and the LIKE for The IRAQ WAR AND LIVE LIKE KINGS AND QUEENS WHILE ONLY A FEW MILES AWAY OUR TROOPS WERE STARVING,OVERHEATED,UNCOMFORTABLE,GETTING SHOT at WHILE STANDING IN CHOW LINES OUT IN THE DESERT WHILE CORPORATE EMPLOYEES AT HALIBURTON ETC. ARE IN air conditioned suites wity 24/7 gourmet/catered meals with jet ski’s on the beach at the corporate palace head-quarters and SUVS with 10 disc CD CHANGERS AND CUSTOM 22 INCH MAG WHEELS JUST SITTING THERE ,BURNING PILES OF BRAND NEW COMPUTERS,BLOWING UP 6 TO 7 TRACTOR TRAILERS A DAY AT A COST OF 140,000 DOLLARS AND MAKING EMPTY RUNS FROM BAGDAD TO TECRETE EVERY DAY FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR AND NOBODY TO THIS DAY,NO ONE CAN FIGURE OUT WHY OUR DEFICIT IS SO HIGH AND OUR ECONOMY IS SO BAD.In addition to all of this ,who deregulated the banks on uncapping what banks could charged on credit card interest ?Hint ,ITS NOT PRESIDENT OBAMA YOU IDIOTS !QUESTION ?WHY HASN’T THE NEWS MEDIA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY EXPOSED THE DOCUMENTARY (IRAQ FOR SALE-THE WAR PROFITEERS)THIS DOCUMENTARY EXPOSES IT ALL IN DETAIL BUT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY PORTRAYS MICHAEL MOORE AS A FANATIC AND THOE DOCUMENTARIES ARE JUST PROPAGANDA TO DERAIL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.I SAY TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE TEA PARTIERS,GET A GRIP YOU IDIOTS BEFORE YOU DESTROY OUR FREEDOMS AND NATIONAL SECURITIES AND DEMOCRACY.EX-PRESIDENT BUSH AND DICK CHEYNEY(EX-CEO OF HALIBURTON SHOULD BE IN JAIL ! ALONG WITH 50% OF OUR GOVERNMENT FOR ROBBING AMERICAN TAX PAYERS AND MAKING US LOOK BAD TO THE WORLD AS THE LEADING SUPER-POWER NATION THAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ! IMAGINE IF WE INVESTED IN OUR OWN PEOPLE SUCH AS IN NEW ORLEANS AND IN OUR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS AND TREATED VETERANS LIKE REAL HEROES AND PUT THEM AT A HIGHER PRIORITY THEN WELFARE STATUS TO WHICH YOU WOULD NOT SEE VETERANS WHO DEFENDED EVERY AMERICANS FREEDOMS AND DEMOCRACY STANDING IN THE PUBLIC EYE BEGGING FOR FOOD,SHELTER AND A JOB,ITS AN ACT OF BETRAYAL BY OUR GOVERNMENT OR LIKE OUR CONSTITUTION STATES (WE THE PEOPLE)AGAIN,LOOK AT HOW THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS ARE STILL SUFFERING TODAY,ITS SICKENING,DIS-HEARTNING AND EVIL,WHEN ARE AMERICANS GOING TO WAKE UP ?SICERLY,DAVE,A DISABLED VET STATED WITH PRIDE NOT SHAME,WAKE UP AMERICA BEFORE ITS TO LATE !
Hi!! It sure is a shame were we started to go with Bush…. Now, it is VERY bad….. No one has every
found out WHERE all the $MONEY$ went when run out of $MONEYT$ in late September – 2008 when
we had to bail out our Nation… It might tell us whnat is ALL about…
@Eric
You touched on an important point. On the surface it may not seem like the drug traffiking is an issue, but it is huge! Our federal government has not taken responsibility to control our borders and has instead dabbled in areas it shouldn’t. Many of the above mentioned.
It’s sad how America has it all wrong most of the time. I love my country, however there are so many other countries that have the right idea about everything. Would it be hard to just “borrow” so of the best ideas and use it for our own? America is the big bully to all the other countries in the world, yet we still can’t pass the 2nd grade as a whole. The government doesn’t care how much they spend because at their age it won’t matter in the long run hurting the younger generations. It’s a sad way to think about it but there is no actual reason to think about everyone’s future meanwhile most of them are beyond the age of 60. So they can do actual stupid and ridiculous ideas that most common people wouldn’t spend money on. Sad to say I believe most middle class and lower class people who know how NOT to spend would actually be a better government than the people who are used to the amount of ridiculous spending are. I also think that there should be a child birth cap, more jobs for people if less were created in the world. 2 child per family sorry if I sound awful.
This is a slice of what is going on around the world that is polluting our minds and environment..
No one is to blame, but ourselves..
Most of us are unconscious of what is going on behind doors and all we hear are witty remarks and melodramatic voices…
Rapid growth without sustainability, we all need to wake up from this illusion before we make the same mistakes as our previous civilizations…
Our emotions are still rampant like a wild elephant running in the streets of our minds. With understanding and compassion, perhaps we can stride forward to the future…
Repub~la~crates!
Interesting range of emotions and theories in all the above comments. Why can’t we all pride ourselves on being ethical, fiscally conservative, honest with each other and pulling for our country and survival of a FREE people. Instead of worrying about who can “get” the most benefit financially from someone else? Look at the screams against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, lies, the smutt. While we’ve been in wars against “tribal” peoples, we’ve become THEM.
And we wonder WHY we are drowning in debt and loosing EVERYTHING at break neck speeds. We vote them in….lets vote them OUT. I have declared bankruptcy becasue I couldn’t make enough no matter how many hours I worked. I have a profession that isn’t paid for what they do. Nurses….think about it.
Health care was needed due to over 40 million with no insurance but obesity caused more degenerative diseases and increased health costs due to bad lifestyles that we must work with prevention. However, with jobs being lost due to Nafta and Wal Mart model bad timing. Do we go back to many dying though? We need more accountability in many areas of the public, business, and government. Anyone notice why they are making bigger tunnels in railroads or improving infrastructure through Alps with new tunnels for trains. So all those China cheap labor products can be shipping to us stupid foolish consumers shopping there while China keeps giving us loans so we can shop while making us slaves to their interest money. Now in France they want to increase retirement ages due to less money coming in and taxes due to China cheap products and their manufacturing bases being lost to China further. No our politicans due not want to say anything to rattle their economy. We are on a train wreck and start boycotting Wal mart and big box stores or cut back shopping there plus stop buying foreign products as mcuh since most of the time you do not need the products anyways. LIve simpleir and green.
stop buying for
And what this story seem to leave out is, most if not all of this has taken place since 2007. What happened in 2007, anybody remember ? I’ll give you a hint ” Democrats took over both houses “. People told the president that they no longer wanted any of Bushes ideas. So the president had no choice but to rubber stamp the crazy spending that the congress sent him. these were Democrat ideas not Bushes ideas. If you would look back you would see that the Dow grew and the economy was booming before 2007. The real crash started when Obama was nominated as the democrats candidate. Since 2007 we have completely sold out to China they own our country, and all we do is keep borrowing, wise up ” YOU DON’T BORROW YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT “. On health care yes reform is needed but not giving insurance companies the OK to rob the people, and the promise that we will illegally force everyone to buy from them, which is all the bill passed does. Since passage of this bill my coverage has decreased and premiums have increased.
And do you know what else has been left out of “this story”? The 110th Congress was sworn in on January 4, 2007. After they were elected into the majority in November of 2006, this is the date where they took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This much of the story is factual. However, the Dems took a 51-49 lead, and although that looks like a majority, the GOP effectively filibustered all important bills that came to the Senate floor, forcing the Dems to get 60 votes to pass any legislation. So although the Dems were in the majority, they didn’t exactly have “control.” More importantly, there are two important factors to consider for “the story” to be fact rather than fiction. The Federal Fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30 of the next calender year. Each fiscal year is identified by the calender in which it ends and is commonly referred to as FY. For example, FY2009 began Oct. 1, 2008 and ends Sept. 30, 2009. A proposal issued by the President, often with various supporting appendices and tables; it indicates Presidential goals and priorities for the next fiscal year. It includes a description of the economic assumptions on which the budget is based, and detailed agency programs and expenditures. The President’s Budget is the government’s primary tool for financial planning and control. It focuses on taxpayers’ dollars the government collects, how it uses them to support Current law (31 U.S.C. § 1105(a)) requires the president to submit a budget no earlier than the first Monday in January, and no later than the first Monday in February. Typically, presidents submit budgets on the first Monday in February. The budget submission has been delayed, however, in some new presidents’ first year when previous president belonged to a different party.programs and services, and whether this use results in a surplus or deficit. In short, because of the specified budget dates and an extremely marginal “majority in the Senate which resulted in filibusters, the GOP served President Obama a heaping plate of warm deficit for him him anthe Dems to eat. You have to do a little digging, but the truth can be found if you look hard enough. I’m sick of the spins from both sides.
You’d have a much easier time listing the differences than the similarities… in fact I can’t think of any differences aside from Obama-care. Americans had better get their heads out of the sand and nominate Ron Paul or it’s going to be 4 more years regardless of which party wins the election.
In Holland we have a saying: Does it matter if you get bitten by the cat or the dog?