If you want to know how the United States got into this debt mess, then look no more. This small but concise article from today's New York Times graphically shows where we went off the tracks.
George W. Bush inherited an economy that had a projected surplus and efficiently turned it into a deficit within two years. Barack Obama inherited the worst economy since the 1930's and has added far fewer dollars to the debt than his predecessor. Take a look at this graph (the source is the Congressional Budget Office, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities):
Bush's tax cuts alone cost the economy more than all of Obama's programs, including the stimulus that saved the country from a deeper, nastier Depression.
So the next time you hear someone complaining about all of the debt the present administration has heaped on the country, remind them that George W. Bush and a Republican Congress almost buried us in debt that paid for very little save for an unnecessary war in Iraq and an unprecedented funneling of money to the already wealthy. And many of the same Congressional Republicans who are apoplectic about our debt now happily voted for these programs and to extend the debt limit every time they were asked to do so.
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