The Official US Politics Thread 'Ron Paul quietly amassing an army of delegates while GOP frontrunners spar' and 'Mitt Romney rebounds against the Santorum surge'

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Allfreedom99 said:

sethnintendo said:

After thinking about my last post it made me almost want to make a thread about why do people blame the President for certain things when they should be pointing the finger at Congress. It is the House and Senate's job to make the budget. Sure the President proposes a budget but that doesn't really mean shit. It is up to the House and Senate to approve a budget. I believe most Americans are just too uneducated to even realize what the three branches roles are. Pretty obvious when you have idiots reelecting idiots over and over again. When someone keeps getting their job back after a less than 30% job approval rating then you know something is fucked up.

Its pretty said when its been over 1000 days since the U.S. Senate has even passed a budget. pretty lame.

But also in fairness while not everything is the president's fault he still has allowed the U.S. national debt to increase by around 5 trillion since he took office. Its around 15 trillion now. He was quoted as saying that "Bush increased our national debt by 4 trillion in his 8 year administration and thats unpatriotic." Well I'd say 5 trillion debt increase in just over 3 years is pretty piss poor as well. He has the power of veto so he could have chosen to limit the debt increase if he wanted to. All to say yes both House and Senate are to blame but blame also has to reside at the feet of the president for allowing 5 trillion to be added to the U.S debt.

But u need to ask why did it increase by 5 trillion.

Terrible econonmy which started in December 2007. This signifigantly reduced revenue to pay the bills.

Unfunded programs started by administrations/congress. Were they ongoing (Medicare Part D, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Bush tax cuts) or 1 time (Stimulus).

With this in mind the Obama Administration has only created 2 short term 1 time programs.  That being the stimulus and the payroll tax cuts for last year and this year (so far only 2 months). While the Bush Administration created things that the Obama Administration cant just cut cold turkey. We are finally getting out of Iraq and in the next 2 years Afghanistan. The affordable care act will finally start paying for Bush's Medicare Part D program when it is fully enacted. 

So it isnt as simple as saying the debt increased or decreased based on who is in power. It is why is it increasing or decreasing. The fact of the matter the vast majority of the increasing the past 3 years was because of new unfunded programs that were not 1 time that occurred during the previous administration.  Through that in with a Great Recession and debt goes up.