PRINT OUT THIS CHART & CARRY IT AROUND-"Bushco Policies Drive RECORD DEFICITS" "

[kpete]

The Chart That Should Accompany Every Discussion of Deficits

By James Fallows, The Atlantic
Updated: May 13, 2011 | 9:41 a.m.
May 12, 2011 | 9:26 a.m.


Why does this chart matter? Because it makes clear, in that wonderful "worth 1,000 words" way, two realities that are fundamental to sane discussion of public finance, but that most of the public doesn't realize and that the Republican leadership is actively working to obscure. They are:

1. The very large, but temporary and self-limiting, expenditures for TARP and other measures proposed by both the Bush and Obama administrations to avoid a second Great Depression, plus Obama stimulus spending. And;

2. The very large, but permanent and worsening, budgetary impact of the "Bush tax cuts" -- which when first proposed back in the pre-9/11 era, were supposed to end in 2010 and were in response to what back then seemed to be the "problem" of a burgeoning surplus in federal accounts! Since "extending" those cuts just sounds like business as usual, I think it is hard for most people to envision the profound and growing effect they have. The chart above helps toward that end -- and doesn't even go into how heavily those cuts are skewed to the "haves" of society. Last year Austan Goolsbee http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/09/think-nobody-in-the-white-house-knows-how-to-explain-economic-policy/63844/ had a marvelous chart of his own on that point.

the chart clarifies that budget problems would be on the path to self-correction, if the Bush cuts had lapsed as originally planned.

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BONUS CHART:


MORE:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3490
http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/the-chart-that-should-accompany-every-discussion-of-deficits-20110512?mrefid=mostViewed

[Bigmack]

1. I have sent that chart (from CBPP) a million times in emails...

to everybody.... especially the few wingnuts I used to deal with.

No answer... zip... nada... bupkis..

They have no answer.

That's ultimately why I stopped even trying to educate them.

If the proof is in front of them and they refuse to see it... no hope.

[Fire1]

2. 60% of the population can't even read a chart. That's why you

got no answer.:(

[Randypiper]

4. Generally I can read a chart,

but that first chart sucks, I have no idea what it means. -1.5 what? What factors? It takes too long to guess what it is trying to convey. Charts should be visually easy to understand.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. It says it, "Deficit in Trillions " "$1.5". I think it's a great graphic.

[patrice]

10. It is.

[patrice]

9. It's the difference between resources & what we're spending. We're almost $1.5 trillion short, hence

the negative, - ; the different colors show you the proportions of various factors that contribute to/comprise that negative number and it projects the short fall relative to expected future resources.

[upi402]

3. They HATE facts. They focus on ideological messages

and jingoistic type hate.

God gave our President black skin. Maybe they should focus their ignorant hate on their god and get over it. I used to post charts and refute conservative's crap all the time. It did no good. A mountain of evidence could fall on them and they'd just call the mountain nasty names. It's the Reagan Dems that we need back. I think we could get them back with some tough talk and bold action from our leaders.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. It's been on my office door since it first came out a year or so ago.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Thanks a pantload, Republicon faux 'conservatives'

Everything Republicon goes to rot

[toddwv]

8. The Republicans left us with 2 wars, degraded tax revenue and more than $400,000,000,000 in interest

That's $400 BILLION just for interest payments. I'm sure everybody knows about the magic of compounding interest.