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Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Bush factor in the national debt and deficit

June 11th, 2010 by Karina



Yesterday, Republican Leader Boehner claimed the Bush tax cuts enacted under Republican controlled Congresses did not lead to the deficit:


House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) defended tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, saying they did not lead to the deficit that currently confronts the country. 


“It’s not the marginal tax rates … that’s not what led to the budget deficit,” he told reporters, adding, “The revenue problem we have today is a result of what happened in the economic collapse some 18 months ago.” 
 
In fact, the Bush-era tax cuts are the largest contributor to the deficit:
The Bush Deficit


The Bush 2001 tax cuts added $1,350 billion and the Bush 2003 tax cuts added $348.7 billion to the deficit. Compare that to major legislation the Democratic-led 111th Congress has passed:

Republican Budget Busting

Other lasting legacies of the Bush Administration on our national debt and deficit include:
Bush Doubled Debt


Bush Doubled Foreign-held debt


Who Left Us With Huge Deficits


The article on Leader Boehner’s comments continued:


The GOP leader also said that slashing marginal tax rates has actually buoyed revenue levels.


“We’ve seen over the last 30 years that lower marginal tax rates have led to a growing economy, 
more employment and more people paying taxes,” he said.
 
During the entire Bush administration the country netted 1 million new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The low job figure was a direct result of the financial crisis the country was entering when Bush left office. But experts have claimed that job creation was anemic under Bush when compared to other two-term presidents.
 
President Bush actually holds the worst job creation record in 75 years and left office with 673,000 fewer private sector jobs than when he started—100% of his net job creation of 1.08 million jobs were in government:



George Bush Job Creation Record





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