Published on AL.com on October 31, 2013 at 8:20 PM
In column after column, writers have enjoyed bashing the Obama administration with a variety of facts and statistics. It's past time to examine some of these facts to separate fact from accepted myth. This is not meant so much as a defense of the president as it is a fact check of what is being peddled. If a columnist has to use incorrect or misleading statistics, you can guarantee that his or her arguments are weak.
One recent columnist wrote about Obama's continuing trillion-dollar deficits. I don't know whether he was intentionally misleading the readers, or did not bother to get up-to-date data, but recent estimates place the 2013 fiscal deficit at $680.3 billion. While that's too high, it represents a more than $300 billion deficit reduction in one year. That massive reduction can be attributed to three factors; an improving economy, the Obama tax increases, and the effects of the much-disliked sequestration.
On the subject of our national debt, one Alabama congressman cannot string two sentences together without talking about the United States' impending insolvency. While the U.S. debt now stands at just over $17 trillion dollars, or just over 100 percent of current GDP, our historic high, just after World War II, was 121.7% of GDP. We recovered from that level of debt, and we can do it again if we have the national will.
The world's patience with our growing debt is not limitless,
but we do not need to act stupidly or cruelly to address the problem. Budget
cuts that add to the deficit later, and tax cuts that do not pay for themselves
are not the way to fix the problem. Although Alabama's Republican Congress
members call themselves fiscally responsible, none of the budget alternatives
they have supported are realistic approaches to balancing the budget. They
support additional tax cuts and unspecified cuts that promise great return and
little pain. Don't let anyone fool you. Our economy is addicted to deficit
spending. Any plan to swiftly balance the budget would likely plunge us into a
deep recession. The budget cuts and tax increases needed to achieve this will
be painful to everyone. There is not enough waste, fraud and abuse and there
are not enough giveaway programs to cut to make this easy. Labeling yourself
fiscally responsible means nothing unless you follow it up with budget
proposals that are more than magical thinking.
One of the biggest myths Republican writers support these days is the growing legend of Ronald Reagan. He is praised for his unyielding conservatism and for the positive effect he had on the American national mood. But his record tells us a different story. When Medicare was proposed, he campaigned nationally against the Socialism he thought it represented. Yet as president, he vowed to protect it. He cut taxes when he took office. Yet when he realized he had cut too deeply, he raised them. As a CPA then in public practice, I remember his tax changes well. His actions to raise taxes alone would cause the very people who idolize him today to label him a RINO.
He stood up to our enemies. Yet he illegally sold weapons to the Iranian government and negotiated with terrorists to release American hostages. Can you imagine what today's Republicans would say about President Obama if he sold weapons to the Iranians? The call to impeach would be shouted from the rooftops. Yet the Regan myth grows.
Finally, let's look at Alabama. Many conservatives chafe at the burden the federal government places on us. They rant against anything the Obama administration supports, even if the idea did not originate with the president, and even if the idea was originally proposed and embraced by conservatives (such as Obamacare). Yet few other states get a better return on their investment in the federal government than Alabama. According to 2010 Census data, Alabama, in that year, received $2.03 for every dollar we sent to Washington. We will bite the hand that feeds us, but we will continue to expect to be fed. Our rugged independence, our standing up against the overbearing federal government is one of our most cherished myths. Like the great Walt Kelly said in Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
In column after column, writers have enjoyed bashing the Obama administration with a variety of facts and statistics. It's past time to examine some of these facts to separate fact from accepted myth. This is not meant so much as a defense of the president as it is a fact check of what is being peddled. If a columnist has to use incorrect or misleading statistics, you can guarantee that his or her arguments are weak.
One recent columnist wrote about Obama's continuing trillion-dollar deficits. I don't know whether he was intentionally misleading the readers, or did not bother to get up-to-date data, but recent estimates place the 2013 fiscal deficit at $680.3 billion. While that's too high, it represents a more than $300 billion deficit reduction in one year. That massive reduction can be attributed to three factors; an improving economy, the Obama tax increases, and the effects of the much-disliked sequestration.
On the subject of our national debt, one Alabama congressman cannot string two sentences together without talking about the United States' impending insolvency. While the U.S. debt now stands at just over $17 trillion dollars, or just over 100 percent of current GDP, our historic high, just after World War II, was 121.7% of GDP. We recovered from that level of debt, and we can do it again if we have the national will.
To put things into perspective, the World Bank publishes
debt statistics of countries around the world. As of 2011, Greece's debt
totaled a disastrous 106.5 percent of GDP, while Singapore had debt at a
manageable 110.2 percent (Japan was at a whopping 189.9 percent). Why is
Greece's dangerous, while Singapore's is manageable? The world's financial
managers answer in the returns they demand to invest in this debt – They
believe that one country can repay the debt while another risks default. U.S.
debt rates remain at near historic lows; the world still judges us sound. It
won't remain that way in the long term if, for no other reason than political
brinksmanship, some irresponsible politicians threaten default. Eventually they
will be taken seriously by the world's bond buyers and the damage they cause
will be expensive.
Budget cuts that add to the deficit later, and tax cuts that do not pay for themselves are not the way to fix the problem.
One of the biggest myths Republican writers support these days is the growing legend of Ronald Reagan. He is praised for his unyielding conservatism and for the positive effect he had on the American national mood. But his record tells us a different story. When Medicare was proposed, he campaigned nationally against the Socialism he thought it represented. Yet as president, he vowed to protect it. He cut taxes when he took office. Yet when he realized he had cut too deeply, he raised them. As a CPA then in public practice, I remember his tax changes well. His actions to raise taxes alone would cause the very people who idolize him today to label him a RINO.
He stood up to our enemies. Yet he illegally sold weapons to the Iranian government and negotiated with terrorists to release American hostages. Can you imagine what today's Republicans would say about President Obama if he sold weapons to the Iranians? The call to impeach would be shouted from the rooftops. Yet the Regan myth grows.
Finally, let's look at Alabama. Many conservatives chafe at the burden the federal government places on us. They rant against anything the Obama administration supports, even if the idea did not originate with the president, and even if the idea was originally proposed and embraced by conservatives (such as Obamacare). Yet few other states get a better return on their investment in the federal government than Alabama. According to 2010 Census data, Alabama, in that year, received $2.03 for every dollar we sent to Washington. We will bite the hand that feeds us, but we will continue to expect to be fed. Our rugged independence, our standing up against the overbearing federal government is one of our most cherished myths. Like the great Walt Kelly said in Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
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