As I was perusing MSN Financial this morning, I came across an interesting headline and couldn't resist delving into it. The title of the piece is "Cost of the Bush Era: $11.5 Trillion". John Dyer is a good writer for MSN Money and he breaks down into several categories just how and why George W. Bush is by a landslide, the most expensive President in U.S. History, bar none.
A couple of opening paragraph quotes that caught my eye and compelled me to read the rest of the story are as follows:
"Over the past eight years, we've suffered calamities that were bound to damage the nation deeply: two recessions, the most lethal terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil, the invasion of Iraq on dubious grounds, the near destruction of one of our most storied cities and, finally, the Wall Street meltdown."
Because the median U.S. household income is about $50,000, readers may have trouble grasping the concept of spending trillions.
For context, let's compare two cases of extraordinary spending under Bush.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington pledged $22 billion to help rebuild in lower Manhattan. At the time, that sum sounded enormous. It was more than one-fourth of the $80 billion budget that New York state had adopted a month before. Though some called for even more aid, the country at large was satisfied that this response was adequate to cope with calamity on a colossal scale.
Oh, how far we've come.
by John Dyer MSN Money
Tomorrow we bid George W. Bush farewell. I would use much stronger language than simply "farewell", but I want to keep this post free of vulgar language. So I will simply say adios George W. I'll let the figures in the piece that I will link below do the talking for me. I beleive this piece sums up the depth and breadth that the Bush Administration has damaged our country monetarily. This doesn't even figure in the scandals, the human rights violation, the torture, or the utter lack of diplomacy by our Government's leaders for the past 8 years. These figures are truly astounding on every level. Please read.
Cost of the Bush era: $11.5 trillion
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Comments
Cost of the loss of American prestige and respect: priceless
I've said it before, and I'll be saying it again for a long time: The new administration has a lot of work to do. It is daunting.
Thanks, man.
Steph, Gary, it is daunting.
T.S., I'm not sure what to think of your comment. If it's in reference to how much he may HAVE to spend to save a country, you could be right. If you're implying that he will be a more "liberal" spender of our money, our children's money, our grandchildren's money, and intentionally, well then we disagree strongly. Bush is the least fiscally responsible President in history. He has blank checked us into bankruptcy. Anyone who voted for him once or especially twice, and still defends him, has no credibility with me at all. That's where I draw the line of stupidity.
Moana, I equate Bush's reign as a comparison to Nazi Germany where he was surrounded by his own SS and Gestapo. Harsh? Yes. True? Yes.
Kathryn, I agree. And Obama will have ZERO choice but to spend more to get us out of this hole. And he will be bashed by the right. The same right that got us here.
DCD - this post was about the monetary cost. Obviously, the human toll is much more daunting.
I can't imagine the pressure on Obama to correct this. It's past due time to bid W farewell! Timely post, Greg!
What is a trillion dollars?
* Money, Banking, The Fed, IMF
Money, Banking, The Fed, IMF
September 17, 2003 - 22:55
What's a trillion dollars?
A trillion dollars = $1,000,000,000,000.
That's 12 zeroes to the left of the decimal point. A trillion is a million million dollars.
The U.S. government spends more than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia, China and Spain combined. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.
What is frightening is that government will continue to grow in America unless citizens prevent it. If government stays on the course it's been on for the past forty years without a radical change, the federal government will have a $10 TRILLION BUDGET by the year 2010.
Foolish politicians make pronouncements about the strength of the economy. The total debt obligation of the United States now exceeds 46 TRILLION DOLLARS.
American workers now net almost 30 percent less in real wages than they did in 1973. After taxes, two paychecks in a family barely equal the purchasing power one had thirty years ago.
(This article for from 2003. The rules have changed my friends...)
to see this criminal
chained to the wall
at Guantanamo
and left behind
to rot.
Yes D, and I'd like to see Dickless Cheney chained right beside him with several others.