I Don't Understand...

Yesterday, in Washington, there was a Tea Party protest against government spending under President Obama. Let's take a realistic look at government spending. Many protesters' signs say "Stop Deficit Spending". Where were these people during the Bush administration? I really want to scream as loud as I can: WHERE WERE THEY THEN?!!


Look at this graph. Under President Clinton, we had a budget surplus. See... it's all in the blue. George Bush took that budget and turned it into an all-time high deficit... that's the part below the line, in the red. His all-time high deficit was almost as bad as his father's, before Clinton. I looked into some of the reasons for George Bush's budget deficit. This is what I found:

The CONSERVATIVE think tank, the Heritage Foundation, reported that under Bush, "spending was up across the board". They went on to say that "the biggest education bill in history, the biggest farm bill in history, and the biggest expansion of the Great Society" happened under Bush's watch.

The Executive Director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan budget watchdog group: "Bush joined with a Republican-led congress in a huge explosion of spending".

I could say more. Like, a year ago the economy took a nosedive under Bush's watch. Like, Bush enacted a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. Like, he wanted to privatize Social Security and put our accounts into the stock market. Look what happened to the stock market! My IRS account still hasn't recovered. In January 2001, there was a federal surplus of $236 billion. George Bush left us with a $400+ billion deficit. Where were the protesters then? I don't understand...

And, as for Health Care Reform... I can't find the words to describe the LIES... downright, irresponsible lies! People are believing the most outrageous things about Obama's health care reform package. The most recent AARP Bulletin's cover story is "The Hype, The Lies, The Facts, How to tune out the fear-mongering and misinformation and make sense of the health care debate." The AARP Bulletin calls their article "The Assault on Truth".

Here are the questions, and the answers according to the AARP:

Question: Will the government take over health care so we end up with socialized medicine?

Answer: No.

Question: Will private insurance be outlawed or wither on the vine?

Answer: No.

Question: Will the government encourage euthanasia to save costs?

Answer: No.

Question: Will Medicare be eliminated or gutted to pay for reform?

Answer: No.

Question: Will the government ration care?

Answer: No.

I don't have space here to rewrite the whole article, but under each Question and Answer is the following information:
"Where did this myth come from?" and "What does the proposal say?"

I can't even watch the news anymore. I cringe when I hear the lies and distortions on Fox News. I get angry when I hear the lies from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. I live in fear when I see how many people believe them. I just don't understand...