Lest there be any doubt, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, blames Republicans for leaving him a huge deficit when he took office.
Heard that before? Many times, probably. The president, who is under pressure for spending associated with the $787 billion stimulus package, bank bailouts and car company rescues, introduced his budget on Monday with another reminder of what he faced when he came into office.
“The fact is, 10 years ago, we had a budget surplus of more than $200 billion, with projected surpluses stretching out toward the horizon,” Obama said.
“Yet over the course of the past 10 years, the previous administration and previous Congresses created an expensive new drug program, passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy and funded two wars without paying for any of it — all of which was compounded by recession and by rising health care costs,” he said.
The result: a $1.3 trillion deficit when he first took over the Oval Office.
On Monday his administration forecast a $1.56 trillion deficit in 2010.
Administration officials acknowledge that even though Obama didn’t create the full problem, it’s now his to fix.
What do you think? Is it right for Obama to put most of the blame for the high deficit on the opposition party and his predecessor, George W. Bush?
Expect to hear the reminder again.
Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama)
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