The National Debt: Betrayal and Devastation

This will conclude a number of commentaries I wrote on federal spending, deficit spending and the national debt during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. See note 1 below concerning my previous commentaries.

The terrible economic, fiscal and financial situation taking place at this very hour is a result of the deficit spending and debt created by the reckless ideology of Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 during the past 28 years. America is drowning in debt due to their desire to bankrupt the federal government. During those 28 years President Clinton was the only President who learned from the past and reversed the deficit spending of the Reagan-Bush 41 area. The below information on the debt they created along with Bush 43 tells the real story.

The national debt on 9/30/81, President Carter's last fiscal year budget stood at $999.8 billion. Eight years later when Reagan's last fiscal year budget ended on 9/29/89 the national debt stood at a whopping $2.857 trillion, an increase of $1.859 trillion or 186%. Reagan never balanced one federal budget during his two terms in office, he did not send one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid zero down on the national debt.

George H.W. Bush followed Reagan and four years later when his last fiscal budget year ended on 9/30/93 the national debt stood at $4.411 trillion, an increase of $1.554 trillion or 54%. Bush like Reagan never balanced one federal budget or sent one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid down zero on the national debt.

Bill Clinton followed Bush 41 and when his eight years ended with fiscal year budget 9/30/01 the national debt stood at $5.807 trillion, an increase of $1.395 trillion or 31%. Clinton reduced the deficit every year his first four years in office and then ran surpluses his last four years in office and ended up with a $62.8 billion surplus for his eight years. His administration also paid down $453 billion on the national debt.

George W. Bush followed Clinton and when his eight years ended with fiscal year budget 9/30/09 the national debt stood at $11.909 trillion, an increase of $6.102 trillion or 105%. Like Reagan and Bush 41, he did not balance any federal budgets in the eight years he served or sent one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid down zero on the national debt.

Those four Presidents added a total of $10.946 trillion to the national debt since President Carter's last fiscal year budget and Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 were responsible for $9.551 trillion of that total. Those three President were given 20 years to put the governments fiscal house in order and instead created un-precedented debt for America.

Now comes the real sad story. Interest paid on the national debt because of the money borrowed to finance deficit spending during the above time frame from fiscal 9/30/81 to fiscal 9/30/09 was approximately $8.4 trillion. Granted that some of the interest payments covered the previous $900 billion of debt before 9/30/81 but one can see the great majority of interest was created since then and the great majority on the republican watch, in fact 87%.

That $10.946 trillion in debt plus $8.4 trillion in interest adds up to $19.346 trillion. The $8.4 trillion paid in interest payments is wasted money that does not create one job or add to the quality of life for our people. Think of what that $8.4 trillion alone could have paid for. The country's defense budget is approximately $660 billion, social security approximately $640 billion and medicare approximately $500 billion. Those programs could have been extended a lot of years with that kind of money. Because of this massive debt and the terrible shape of the economy the CBO projects that by the year 2019 interest payments alone to service the debt will be $800 billion a year unless steps are taken to reduce the deficit spending and debt.

President Obama, our country and its people have been left with the worst economic, financial and fiscal situation since the great depression and now something has to give. It is time now for our leaders to lead with courage and do the right thing. If republicans keep up their opposition to every thing the Obama administration proposes to move the country forward the President should adopt one of President Truman's famous sayings: To Hell with them, when history is written, they will be the sons of bitches, not I.

Note l: Three part series with recap titled: " The U.S. Economy: Which Party Performs Best" dated 1-27-08, 2-17-08, 2-25-08 and 3-02-08: The Fiscal Legacy of George W. Bush dated 10-30-09 and Federal Spending: Facts vs. Myth dated 10-31-09.

Note 2: National Debt and Interest numbers are taken from the Treasury Dept. on line information.

Note 3: The actual numbers on the national debt and interest paid are not exact. The numbers were rounded off to the first six digits so the numbers shown are lower than the acutal numbers.

Note 4: The $6.102 trillion of debt George W. Bush's administration added to the national debt in just eight short years should really tell the story of just what Mr. Bush did to the taxpayers of this country.