Facts Are Inconvenient Things

I really am tired of listening to Democrats blame George Bush for the deficits.  The facts do not support the accusation, but somehow a lot of the press has neglected to look closely at the accusation.  Byron York posted a story at the Washington Examiner on Thursday detailing the actual facts.

Let’s look at some of the facts:

In 2003 the government collected $1.782 trillion in revenue.

In 2004 the government collected $1.88 trillion in revenue.

In 2005 the government collected $2.153 trillion in revenue.

In 2006 the government collected $2.406 trillion in revenue.

In 2007 the government collected $2.567 trillion in revenue.

That doesn’t sound as if the tax cuts cost money.

In January 2001 the debt was $5.7 trillion. 

In January 2005 the debt was $7.6 trillion.

In January 2009 the debt was $10.6 trillion.

Obviously the increase of $4.9 trillion over eight years is awful, but it pales in comparison to what President Obama has done in only two and a half hears.  Our current debt is $14.4 trillion–an increase of almost $4 trillion in two and a half years.

The Republicans overspent, but they only controlled Congress for four years.  The rest of the time during the Bush administration, Congress was either controlled by the Democrats or split between the two parties. 

Just a side note on all of this.  Bill Clinton did not create a budget surplus–he was fortunate enough to be in office while the tech bubble was forming.  The increase in tax revenue during the Clinton administration was due to a large increase in capital gains tax income as people began to cash in on the tech bubble.  Unfortunately, George Bush was president when the bubble popped, but he still managed to increase tax revenue with tax cuts.

Think about it.