Politics

The Debt & Deficit In Charts

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) on Thursday 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 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:

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

The article on Leader Boehner’s comments continued:

He 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 Bush administration the country netted the creation of 1 million 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:

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 11, 2010 (boomark / email).