BUSH-DEFICITs DOUBLE what we have been told previously. WHY HAVEN'T Dem 'leaders' SHOUTED THESE FIGURES to the heavens??
Here is an article so breathtaking in its scope, and so monstrous in its implications, that one can only wonder.... "WHERE THE HELL HAVE our Democrat 'LEADERS' been, as the Bush-Rove-Cheney-Republican government has run up US deficits that now total THREE-HUNDRED-SEVENTY-FIVE-THOUSAND dollars... FOR EVERY WORKING AMERICAN?"!
This is a text-book example of how the *MEDIA NARRATIVE* becomes political reality in America. Mr Bush and his administration have been GIVEN A FREE PASS on THEIR DEFICITS for so long, by not just the Republican-friendly corporate media (and specifically the "media leaders" and "watchdogs" such as the Craven New York Times and Cowering Washington Post), but the BUSH DEFICITS have been GIVEN A FREE PASS by the complicit DLC, DSCC, and even DNC Democratic "LEADERSHIP" as well!
Being treated rudely, locked out of bill-writing by Republicans, and neglected by the press-media is NOT a sufficient EXCUSE to explain how DEMOCRAT LEADERS have been **AWOL** as regards these MONSTER 3/4-TRILLION dollar deficits, with even that number NOT including Social Security, Medicare, and other govenmental obligations to American citizens...
....As the ONE-THIRD-TRILLION dollar per-year INTEREST PAYMENT, ALONE, would indicate. Not even the brazenly corrupt Bush administration would dare to pay FIFTY-PERECENT INTEREST on the DEFICITS at American tax-payer's expense!
($327-billion interest payment for 2005 is almost half, or 50%, of the $760 billion government budget deficit for 2005.)
Which, again, begs the question: "WHERE HAVE OUR Democrat 'leaders' been as the Bush-Rove-Cheney administration PILES THIS DEBT on the backs of every working American!"?
With a hat-tip to Representative Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., for doing the yeoman work of digging up these numbers and bringing them to America's attention, and thereby doing the job of the ENTIRE Democratic Senate caucus, who as usual are AWOL on these life-and-death issues for American citizens. And Rep. Cooper deserves credit for ANTICIPATING that the Bush-Rove-Republican Party will indeed BLAME THE Democrat Party FOR THOSE MONSTER DEFICITS should the in-so-many-ways tepid 2006 Democrats somehow in back the House or Senate.
WITH OUR COWERING Democratic Senate "leaders" REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES *EVERY DAMN ELECTION*, even if the Dems. do, by miracle, win a house of Congress this election, the Right-Wing will inevitably portray the next David Koresh or Timmy McVeigh as a MARTYR against DEMOCRAT 'big government jack-booted tax-and-spenders," EVEN THOUGH that is an exacct description of the Bush-Republican government's stewardship of America these past 6 years!
(P.S.: by relentlessly demanding CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS of the Jim McDougal "WHITEWATER" land development and McDougal's Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan, Republicans, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the "major media" focused EXCLUSIVELY on McDougals $22 million in federal-guaranteed losses, and quickly moved the TRILLION DOLLAR Republican-dominated S&L scandals into the "FORGOTTEN" catagory - including the ONE BILLION Silverado S&L losses of which Neil Bush was a Director, and the ONE BILLION in EXTRA losses at Charles Keating's Lincoln S&L after President Bush Sr. FIRED the Federal bank examiner and replaced him with industry super-lobbyist [Repug. campaign donor] M. Danny Walls.)
BY CONTROLLING what the Media DOES or DOES NOT TALK ABOUT, the Republicans sustain their MONOPOLY CONTROL over THE ENTIRE US GOVERNMENT... including CENSORING discussion of the $49 TRILLION combined US deficit!
<<
* The true 2005 deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported
* This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%
* That's $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for every working American
* The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3 trillion Bush reported
>>
==================================
Rep. Jim Cooper: Bush is Hiding the True National Debt.
It's Worse than You've Heard. Much Worse - [DOUBLE previous estimates!]
BuzzFlash news alert
Thu, 09/07/2006
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/105
Though the Bush Administration's official budget lists the national debt and deficit as being incredibly high, they are actually far worse than reported, according to Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN). But don’t just take his word for it, even if Cooper is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law graduate. The following figures appear in the official U.S. Financial Report, released by the Treasury Department:
* The true 2005 deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported
* This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%
* That's $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for every working American
* The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3 trillion Bush reported
* This figure has more than doubled in the past five years
* We paid $327 billion last year on interest alone
* It's all getting worse
What accounts for the huge discrepancy? Unlike businesses, the government uses "cash" instead of "accrual" accounting. This means that the government does not report future spending promises like Medicare and Social Security, or even future spending guarantees like veterans' benefits and federal employee pensions.
"Cash accounting tells you what's in your bank account. Accrual accounting tells you what's in your bank account and what's on your credit card statement," Cooper told BuzzFlash in an interview. "Whether you're promising to buy a road or something at Target, you need to know what you promised to buy. That should be a binding obligation of the government. We've made a world of promises to folks that we need to keep."
But wait, there's more! The U.S. Financial Report does not mention that if Medicare and Social Security are factored into the equation (which the Treasury Department did not), the true deficit was actually a whopping $3.3 trillion last year, over ten times more than Bush claims. And when Social Security projections are adjusted to reflect current life expectancies instead of the old 75-year mark, Cooper said the true national debt is "probably closer to $65 trillion."
Worried that a new Democratic majority in the House would be blamed for the higher numbers in the future, Cooper has taken it upon himself to make it clear that the problem has already been created by Bush's failed economic policies. "This has to be announced on their watch, using their voice," he said. "There's a great urgency about this: we only have two months left to educate all Americans about how the Bush deficits are literally destroying America's credit."
"I think [the report] is the most powerful critique of the Bush Administration" because they produced it, Cooper added. "No Republican can deny this attack."
In order to get the word out, Cooper reprinted the entire U.S. Financial Report in a book with his own explanatory introduction and a warning on the cover reading, "The Official Report the White House Does Not Want You To Read." He said the measure was necessary because the Administration tried to hide the report by distributing it to fewer than 20 members of Congress in the midst of the Christmas holiday season with no accompanying press release or media announcement.
According to Cooper, conservatives won’t touch the issue because it would make Bush look bad, liberal newspapers think it's too confusing, and liberal politicians are worried the ensuing chaos from the higher numbers would limit social program spending. "The way we're going, we're going to have to eliminate programs," Cooper retorted. "Isn't it better to embarrass Bush while we can with his own words and to get Democrats in control?"
Cooper said he is determined to do everything he can to add honesty to the federal budget. He gave the first copy of his book to House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and has introduced legislation directing the president to use accrual accounting in his reports. A similar measure was recently lost in the Senate after passing in the House.
The only compensation Cooper is receiving for the book are three complimentary copies.
This is a text-book example of how the *MEDIA NARRATIVE* becomes political reality in America. Mr Bush and his administration have been GIVEN A FREE PASS on THEIR DEFICITS for so long, by not just the Republican-friendly corporate media (and specifically the "media leaders" and "watchdogs" such as the Craven New York Times and Cowering Washington Post), but the BUSH DEFICITS have been GIVEN A FREE PASS by the complicit DLC, DSCC, and even DNC Democratic "LEADERSHIP" as well!
Being treated rudely, locked out of bill-writing by Republicans, and neglected by the press-media is NOT a sufficient EXCUSE to explain how DEMOCRAT LEADERS have been **AWOL** as regards these MONSTER 3/4-TRILLION dollar deficits, with even that number NOT including Social Security, Medicare, and other govenmental obligations to American citizens...
....As the ONE-THIRD-TRILLION dollar per-year INTEREST PAYMENT, ALONE, would indicate. Not even the brazenly corrupt Bush administration would dare to pay FIFTY-PERECENT INTEREST on the DEFICITS at American tax-payer's expense!
($327-billion interest payment for 2005 is almost half, or 50%, of the $760 billion government budget deficit for 2005.)
Which, again, begs the question: "WHERE HAVE OUR Democrat 'leaders' been as the Bush-Rove-Cheney administration PILES THIS DEBT on the backs of every working American!"?
With a hat-tip to Representative Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., for doing the yeoman work of digging up these numbers and bringing them to America's attention, and thereby doing the job of the ENTIRE Democratic Senate caucus, who as usual are AWOL on these life-and-death issues for American citizens. And Rep. Cooper deserves credit for ANTICIPATING that the Bush-Rove-Republican Party will indeed BLAME THE Democrat Party FOR THOSE MONSTER DEFICITS should the in-so-many-ways tepid 2006 Democrats somehow in back the House or Senate.
WITH OUR COWERING Democratic Senate "leaders" REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES *EVERY DAMN ELECTION*, even if the Dems. do, by miracle, win a house of Congress this election, the Right-Wing will inevitably portray the next David Koresh or Timmy McVeigh as a MARTYR against DEMOCRAT 'big government jack-booted tax-and-spenders," EVEN THOUGH that is an exacct description of the Bush-Republican government's stewardship of America these past 6 years!
(P.S.: by relentlessly demanding CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS of the Jim McDougal "WHITEWATER" land development and McDougal's Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan, Republicans, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the "major media" focused EXCLUSIVELY on McDougals $22 million in federal-guaranteed losses, and quickly moved the TRILLION DOLLAR Republican-dominated S&L scandals into the "FORGOTTEN" catagory - including the ONE BILLION Silverado S&L losses of which Neil Bush was a Director, and the ONE BILLION in EXTRA losses at Charles Keating's Lincoln S&L after President Bush Sr. FIRED the Federal bank examiner and replaced him with industry super-lobbyist [Repug. campaign donor] M. Danny Walls.)
BY CONTROLLING what the Media DOES or DOES NOT TALK ABOUT, the Republicans sustain their MONOPOLY CONTROL over THE ENTIRE US GOVERNMENT... including CENSORING discussion of the $49 TRILLION combined US deficit!
<<
* The true 2005 deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported
* This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%
* That's $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for every working American
* The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3 trillion Bush reported
>>
==================================
Rep. Jim Cooper: Bush is Hiding the True National Debt.
It's Worse than You've Heard. Much Worse - [DOUBLE previous estimates!]
BuzzFlash news alert
Thu, 09/07/2006
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/105
Though the Bush Administration's official budget lists the national debt and deficit as being incredibly high, they are actually far worse than reported, according to Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN). But don’t just take his word for it, even if Cooper is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law graduate. The following figures appear in the official U.S. Financial Report, released by the Treasury Department:
* The true 2005 deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported
* This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%
* That's $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for every working American
* The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3 trillion Bush reported
* This figure has more than doubled in the past five years
* We paid $327 billion last year on interest alone
* It's all getting worse
What accounts for the huge discrepancy? Unlike businesses, the government uses "cash" instead of "accrual" accounting. This means that the government does not report future spending promises like Medicare and Social Security, or even future spending guarantees like veterans' benefits and federal employee pensions.
"Cash accounting tells you what's in your bank account. Accrual accounting tells you what's in your bank account and what's on your credit card statement," Cooper told BuzzFlash in an interview. "Whether you're promising to buy a road or something at Target, you need to know what you promised to buy. That should be a binding obligation of the government. We've made a world of promises to folks that we need to keep."
But wait, there's more! The U.S. Financial Report does not mention that if Medicare and Social Security are factored into the equation (which the Treasury Department did not), the true deficit was actually a whopping $3.3 trillion last year, over ten times more than Bush claims. And when Social Security projections are adjusted to reflect current life expectancies instead of the old 75-year mark, Cooper said the true national debt is "probably closer to $65 trillion."
Worried that a new Democratic majority in the House would be blamed for the higher numbers in the future, Cooper has taken it upon himself to make it clear that the problem has already been created by Bush's failed economic policies. "This has to be announced on their watch, using their voice," he said. "There's a great urgency about this: we only have two months left to educate all Americans about how the Bush deficits are literally destroying America's credit."
"I think [the report] is the most powerful critique of the Bush Administration" because they produced it, Cooper added. "No Republican can deny this attack."
In order to get the word out, Cooper reprinted the entire U.S. Financial Report in a book with his own explanatory introduction and a warning on the cover reading, "The Official Report the White House Does Not Want You To Read." He said the measure was necessary because the Administration tried to hide the report by distributing it to fewer than 20 members of Congress in the midst of the Christmas holiday season with no accompanying press release or media announcement.
According to Cooper, conservatives won’t touch the issue because it would make Bush look bad, liberal newspapers think it's too confusing, and liberal politicians are worried the ensuing chaos from the higher numbers would limit social program spending. "The way we're going, we're going to have to eliminate programs," Cooper retorted. "Isn't it better to embarrass Bush while we can with his own words and to get Democrats in control?"
Cooper said he is determined to do everything he can to add honesty to the federal budget. He gave the first copy of his book to House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and has introduced legislation directing the president to use accrual accounting in his reports. A similar measure was recently lost in the Senate after passing in the House.
The only compensation Cooper is receiving for the book are three complimentary copies.
posted by verifi at 8:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home