Why Ross Perot Has the President in His Hip Pocket
Speaking here yesterday, FOX political analyst Brit Hume credited Dallas’ Ross Perot Sr.–he called him the “little guy” with the charts–for first focusing public attention on federal budget deficits during Perot’s run for the presidency in 1992. Back then the annual deficit was around $250 billion; today’s it’s upwards of $1.6 trillion. So, when we bumped into the billionaire businessman at last night’s bash for the Museum of Nature & Science, we asked if he sees any hope for getting the current deficit under control. “Not right now, because they’re printing money left and right,” Perot replied. “I thought our numbers were bad [in '92], but the ones today are makin’ our numbers look good.” Then, with a flourish, he pulled a crisp new bill out of his wallet and held it up, grinning. It had President Obama’s picture in the middle and the inscription, “One Trillion Dollars.” [FB commenter "Parker," I did this one especially for you.]
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I remember when this used to be fun.
Way to stay above the fray.
One with W would have had a 5 Trillion denomination. Obama has a ways to go yet. Maybe there is another country we can attack (that hasn’t attacked us, of course)
2000 – 2008 don’t exist. Just keep saying it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War
The deficit under Bush and the Deficit under Obama.
@Doug
Quoting the Heritage Foundation has as much credibility as quoting Sarah Palin.
Try truth next time.
It’s in the books that W drove it from 5.6 to 9.9 in his eight years and left us on the edge of a depression. Spending was needed to get us out of that (wingnuts: remember WWII got us out of the depression and not FDR? Well, it was the SPENDING in WWII that did it. It would have has exactly the same effect to build those ships, planes, bombs, and sink them into the ocean)
Heritage Foundation? Their reliability can be summed in two words: Puh. Leez.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
Year Gross Debt in Billions [7] as % of GDP
2000 5,628.7 58.0
2001 5,769.9 57.4
2002 6,198.4 59.7
2003 6,760.0 62.6
2004 7,354.7 63.9
2005 7,905.3 64.6
2006 8,451.4 65.0
2007 8,950.7 65.6
2008 9,985.8 70.2
2009 (est.) 12,867.5 90.4
2010 (est.) 14,456.3 98.1
2011 (est.) 15,673.9 101.0
2012 (est.) 16,565.7 100.6
2013 (est.) 17,440.2 99.7
2014 (est.) 18,350.0 99.8
@Bob
The graphic that The Heritage Foundation used came from The Washington Post and the numbers The Washington Post used to form the graph were from the Congressional Budget Office and The Obama White House.
File Bush comments under “non sequitur” and focus on the issue at hand. And enjoy the joke, Debbies Downer.
You quip about the Heritage foundation getting cbo info. Bush is then blamed by citing wikipedia.
At some point you must let it go and let’s see where this thing is currently going. Can we honestly debate if putting everyone on the federal teet is such a swell idea?
The House and the Senate spend the money that they take from us or create through debt. Every President since Nixon has signed the spending bills. What we need is a President with the Brains and Ba@@s to not sign the spending bills and force a balanced budget. Maybe in 2012.