Martin Feldstein, former Reagan economic adviser, is calling for Obama to raise taxes on the middle and lower classes in order to bring the budget closer to balance. He also continues the the revisionist history that government shrunk under Reagan.
The meme that the GOP are the only responsible stewards of all things fiscal is tiring. The numbers don’t lie. Total outlays of the federal govt rose 69% under Reagan’s 8 years from $678 billion to $1.143 trillion. (pages 22-24).
George HW Bush’s budgets went from $1.143 trillion to $1.41 trillion, a 23% rise over 4 years.
Under Clinton’s budgets, the govt outlays grew 32% over 8 years from $1.41 trillion to $1.86 trillion.
Of course George W Bush’s budgets are staggering, growing 114%over 8 years from $1.863 trillion to $3.99 trillion in fiscal 2009 (remember the previous Prez writes the budget for the incoming President’s first year.)
Here are the number the conservatives never want you to know>> under Obama, govt growth is projected to actually be FLAT: from $3.99 trillion to $4.02 trillion. This takes into account the increasing outlays for Boomer entitlements.
Feldstein was creating his own reality long before the Cheney family.
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