Our second post in the series ----- FACT: All the extraordinary deficits since and including 2008 have been Democrat Congressional Budgets. Period.

What we have in this posted image is a flow chart showing the scheduled chain of events for any and every federal budget. Make note of the fact that "President" does not appear on the flow chart.

Clink on image to enlarge

The fact of the matter is this: the President presents a series of suggestions that we call a "budget proposal." That proposal is the beginning of the congressional budget process. However, technically speaking, ALL of our nation's budgets originate in the House of Representatives. The origianal "budget blueprint" is the result of a political process involving 435 congressmen, not one President. During the years of Bill Clinton's presidency, for example, our nation experienced 4 balanced budgets all of which originated in the Republican House of Representatives. The balanced budgets of the late 1990's were not "Clinton budgets" per se. Rather, they were bi-partisan budgets that originated and passed through a Republican Congress. Bill Clinton did not act alone nor did he originate any of the Congressional Budgets - certainly not the balanced budgets of his last four years. That was the work of a fiscally responsible Republican Congess.

As we move into the 21st century, the deficits of the first six years of the the Bush Presidency originated in a Republican Congress. In the end, the Republican Congress, in power for the first six years of Bush 43, is responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion in record setting total deficit spending for years 2002 thru 2007. By contrast, the Obama administration has spent nearly that much with its first budget -- spending at 6 times the rate of the much maligned Bush Administration.

click on image to enlarge.

The claim by Obama that Bush's last year saw a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit is not exactly true - Bush signed on to this budget, but Obama, himself, voted for that bill and the Democrat Congress wrote and voted that deficit into law !!!

Understand that Bush was sworn in as President on January 20, 2001, nearly three months into fiscal year 2001, the last budget year of the Clinton Administration. Bush's first budget proposal was for fiscal year 2002, beginning on October 1 of 2001 and extending through September 30, 2002.

While this is a bit confusing, it is something that we the people need to understand.

The mid-term elections of November, 2006, saw Congressional power in both houses of Congress change hands. Out with the GOP and in with the Democrats. And the first Democrat Congressional budget went into effect on October 1 of 2007, expiring on September 30, '08. On the bar graph in this post, the Democrats first budget is shown as " '08".

To make it clear, Midknight Review is saying that 2008 and 2009 on the bar graph were the last two fiscal years of the Bush Presidency but the first two fiscal budgets of the [new] Democrat congress.

The bar chart shown in this post is most often used by other bloggers to argue for the deficits of the Obama Administration, when in reality, 2009 was a "Bush budget" that originated and was approved by a Democrat Congress. While 2009 is a Bush/Democrat budget, it cannot be credited to Obama in terms of a specific criticism.

More than this, the chart is now, officially, out of date as relates to the 2009 and 2010 projections. The official final total for the 2009 deficit was not 1.85 trillion, but $1.35 trillion. The 2010 deficit projection, as per Obama's first budget proposal, 2/1/10, is $1.57 trillion, up substantially from the original estimate of $1.19 trillion.

Midknight Review makes the claim that the Democrats are to blame for the "mess we are in."

The effect of all this is found in the fact that Obama is factually wrong when he blames Bush for the deficits of the "previous decade." For one thing, Obama voted for three of those budgets as a Freshman member of the Senate. Secondly, the economic collapse, in full blown by the end of the 2008 summer, took place on the Democrat Congressional watch. Both Congressional banking committees, in the House and in the Senate, were controlled by the Democrats (Barney Frank in the House and Chris Dodd in the Senate). In fact, Bush appealed to the Congress in both 2007 and 2008 to take more control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. His appeals were harshly refused by Frank.

The "mess" that Obama inherited" was one that he voted for and helped to create. A thing called "Affordable Housing" was the straw that broke the bank and THAT was and is a pet project of the socialist agenda since the Clinton Administration. While the Republicans could have put up more of a fuss about this policy, it remains the brain child of the Democrats, something they refuse to amend, even in these trying times.

Senator Obama and Company are every bit as responsible for the mess we the people have inherited than anything that can be credited to the GOP.

This will be a recurring theme of the Review. The word is not "out there" as it should be - we intend to be part of the remedy to that problem -- jds
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