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One point to remember, in 2007 we were fighting 2 wars that were not on the books. One thing Obama did was put the cost of our wars on the books.
Looks bad, but then , hell, it is, so it should look bad, not hidden.
The actual deficit for the year 2007 was $500 billion including borrowed Social Security funds. The numbers can be found here:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/.../histdebt_histo5.htmActually the wars were included in the budget:
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Many Obama defenders in the comments are claiming that the numbers above do not include spending on Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush years. They most certainly do. While Bush did fund the wars through emergency supplementals (not the regular budget process), that spending did not simply vanish.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/...deficit-in-pictures/Likewise there was no Clinton surplus because Clinton borrowed money from Social Security. The numbers can also be found at the same website as above with a proper discussion of this facts here:
http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16Also note:
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How Clinton managed to claim a surplus was that while the general operating budgets ran deficits but Clinton borrowed from numerous off budget funds to make the on budget fund a surplus.
For example, in 2000, Clinton claimed a $230B surplus, but Clinton borrowed
$152.3B from Social Security
$30.9B from Civil Service Retirement Fund
$18.5B from Federal Supplementary Medical insurance Trust Fund
$15.0B from Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
$9.0B from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund
$8.2B from Military Retirement Fund
$3.8B from Transportation Trust Funds
$1.8B from Employee Life Insurance & Retirement fund
$7.0B from others
Total borrowed from off budget funds $246.5B, meaning that his $230B surplus is actually a $16.5B deficit.
($246.5B borrowed - $230B claimed surplus = $16.5B actual deficit).
If there is ever a true surplus, then the national debt will go down.
http://open.salon.com/blog/bru...nton_balanced_budgetObama also doesn't mind cooking the books either:
http://www.craigsteiner.us/comments/166