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Hypocrisy Alert: Eric Cantor Added $3.4 Trillion to Debt But Blames Obama for His Debt
Eric Cantor lied when he claimed that Obama doesn’t care about the debt on Meet The Press. He also forgot his own votes for wars and programs that increased the debt by $3.4 trillion under Bush.
Video:
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DAVID GREGORY: These core beliefs, I mean what you’re talking about, as you admitted after your speech, is not really something that’s going to be captured in new legislation. There are core beliefs of the Republican Party that the polls show were rejected by a national electorate that you want to try to recapture some of if you’re going to get to become a national party.
REP. ERIC CANTOR: Not quite sure about legislation. We are going to have follow-up legislation to pretty much everything I spoke of this year. And that’s the point. The point is we’ve got to be talking about helping folks. You know, I’ve got a constituent, she’s 12 years old, her name is Katie. She was diagnosed with cancer at age one. I mean can you imagine? That is a parent’s nightmare, the worst nightmare.
And the federal government’s got a role in research, in basic medical research, trying to find cures for disease. We can work together on something like that. You know, we’ve got so many issues. We know, on the bigger macroeconomic issues, there’s a real disagreement between us and the president. We ought to be making sure we manage down the debt and deficit. He doesn’t share the commitment with us on that.
So okay, we’re going to keep at it on that. But at the same time, you’ve got so many millions of Americans who feel that they have become an afterthought. My purpose in saying this is we have conservative principles that actually can work for their life again. And that’s what we’re going to be about promoting.
Beneath the kinder gentler rhetoric of the Republican Party are the same old tired lies that they have been pushing since Barack Obama first took office. President Obama has done the exact opposite of not caring about reducing the debt and deficit. Barack Obama has cut federal spending to its lowest level since Eisenhower. The President has signed cuts that will reduce our debt by $2.5 trillion, and as far as the deficit goes, it has been shrinking every year under Obama.
Here is the chart from The Rachel Maddow Show:
As the chart demonstrates, Eric Cantor was lying. He was completely, totally, and comprehensively not telling the truth. Apparently, instead of lying for the wealthy, Cantor and his fellow Republicans are going to lie to the middle class.
Even worse than Cantor’s lies, is his hypocrisy about the debt. The truth is that Eric Cantor is in part responsible for the nation’s debts and deficit. According to data compiled by Bloomberg News in 2011, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell voted for, “Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and Medicare prescription drug benefits. They also voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. These initiatives added $3.4 trillion to the nation’s accumulated debt and to its current annual budget deficit of $1.5 trillion.”
Republicans claim that the nation can’t afford Medicare, Social Security, jobs programs, veterans’ benefits, school lunches, an even Meals On Wheels due to the deficit, but it was Eric Cantor who helped run up the debt in the last decade. Apparently, the Republican Party isn’t the only thing that Eric Cantor is reinventing. The Majority Leader is also re-imagining his voting record, and his own role in running up the national debt.
The numbers show that while Republicans pretend, the real deficit cutter is residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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42 Responses to Hypocrisy Alert: Eric Cantor Added $3.4 Trillion to Debt But Blames Obama for His Debt
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Spenser
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 4:37 pm
Can somebody explain to me how fiscal years work so I know why 2009 is considered a Bush year?
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
The budget is forward one year. In other words the budget set in stone in 2008 is for the fiscal year 2009
In 2017 the budget will be Obama’s budget no matter who is president
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:42 am
“In other words the budget set in stone in 2008 is for the fiscal year 2009″
And what if the budget was delayed, not only past the beginning of FY2009, not only past the election, but all the way until three months after the new president had taken office and added another $400b of spending to the final bill?
djchefron(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:50 am
imageshack.us/a/img197/62...
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:54 am
I merely explained how it worked, not specifics
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:59 am
And I merely explained who’s signature is on those appropriations bills. The reason fiscal year budgets for a new administration year fall on the previous administration is because they’re the ones who pass the budgets. Bush did not finalize the FY09 budget.
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 11:06 am
archive.mises.org/16107/b...
Warren_28
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 10:22 am
The schaef is right. The majority of the spending in 2009 was signed by Obama. It’s because there was only continuing resolutions up till then. Also, if Pres. Obama can craft an $800 billion dollar spending stimulus in weeks, then he is the one who takes credit for federal spending on the day his signature hits the paper. And that was for a majority of 2009 fiscal year.
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 11:00 am
useconomy.about.com/od/us...
The 800 bl stimulus was spent over 3 years
Prior to that we spent over 600 bl on needless wars. At least Obama spent his at home
majii
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:30 pm
The last budget under President Bush began on October 1, 2008 and did not end until September 30, 2009, so during the majority of President Obama’s first year in office, we were still operating under President Bush’s last budget year.
majii
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
“The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, for example, was signed by Obama six months before the end of the fiscal year, and coming in at less than half a trillion dollars, this spending was only a fraction of the 3.5 trillion or so in spending already signed into law by Bush earlier that fiscal year.”
The claim that President Obama “spent more than Bush in 2009″ is incorrect, as you can see from the excerpt I cited from Shiva’s link, which I’ll re-post.
archive.mises.org/16107/b...
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
“The 800 bl stimulus was spent over 3 years”
Yes? And?
“Prior to that we spent over 600 bl on needless wars. At least Obama spent his at home”
Makes sense to me. Each of Obama’s annual deficits has been larger than the total amount of money spent in Iraq over a ten-year period, but “at home” dollars incur less debt than “over there” dollars, or maybe they don’t accrue interest, or something.
But it’s good that you’ve made people aware that Obama front-loaded part of the cost of ARRA onto the previous budget.
“his spending was only a fraction of the 3.5 trillion or so in spending already signed into law by Bush earlier that fiscal year.â
Yes. Amazingly, budgets are large regardless of how much or little deficit spending is incurred. A large chunk of the FY09 budget, however, was a one-time expense on TARP, and when Bush offered to release the second half of the money prior to Obama’s inauguration, to which Obama happily agreed. There were a lot of extenuating circumstances unique to the FY09 bill and Obama signed off on a significant chunk and was complicit in another significant chunk.
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
He also loaded the wars
TARP Bush money. All the way
The return on the Obama stimulus was money back into the economy. Well worth it. And austerity wont get us out of what Bush left us
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
I see the tone of the discussion has changed entirely, from who spent what, to subjective opinions on whether the reasons are worthy.
Take notes at home, everybody:
- $400b deficits with war expenditures with 3 and 4% GDP growth = bad
- trillion-dollar deficits after ending a war with negative GDP growth = good
503me
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 5:36 pm
What happens is that at the start of 2008 the bills were set to paid on first of 2009 for the bills of 2008, did that help? For example, the ‘debt ceiling fiasco’ was for paying the bill that were approved at the start of 2012.
Sugapea
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
You won’t get these facts on FOX NEWS, Spenser…here you go:
And look at your previous Republican Administrations as well:
jimcgreevy.com/gvdc/Natl_...
Sugapea
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 5:52 pm
Perhaps…easier to read:
imcgreevy.com/gvdc/Natl_D...
Marcia
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 9:53 pm
The Federal Fiscal Year and budget runs from 10/1 thru 9/30 of the following year. 2009 fiscal year started on 10/1/2008; by time of inauguration the budget has already been negotiated.
majii
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:26 pm
The federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the next year.
503me
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
The GOP are trying so hard to not believe that Americans can read and not only that but that Americans are involved in ways that haven’t happened for over 30 years. The GOP(guarding old plutocrats) really believe that if they say it often enough, people will think its true. Please everyone, stay as connected and involved, and make sure that when 2014 comes, the GOP are shown what happens when a party of the government decides to be traitors to the american people.
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Stay connected, everybody! There are only 21 months left until the next election, so get those accusations of capital felonies out while you can!
Patrick pine
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 5:41 pm
Federal fiscal year starts October 1
Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 10th, 2013 at 6:57 pm
Eric Cantor ugly inside AND out.
And I STILL want to know where his eyebrows are.
ibwilliamsi
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:00 am
He could use a little Maybeline…
Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:23 pm
And a wheelbarrowful of integrity.
MrNagger
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:55 am
He still looks like the manager of an asshole store.
Sean
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Yay – an article full of half-truths and intentionally misleading statements, masqurading as news. pot.kettle.black
You know how you can definitively mark someone as an idiot? They are dumb enough to think one of the American teams is better or different than the other one.
Ben
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:26 am
That bump in 2009? Obvious result of bipartisan push for stimulus. Trillions of dollars in emergency spending. The problem is that Obama then took that emergency spending as the base budget and now is bragging that he’s cut spending to less than it was when we spent trillions of dollars to “save” the economy. If you compare him to 2008, when we had two wars but weren’t making emergency spending measures, he looks really, really bad.
It doesn’t matter who is in office, we have a serious spending problem. Spending has risen far faster than population growth plus inflation, and that’s a problem.
djchefron(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:32 am
Do you have a link or should we take your word?
Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:53 am
We were making emergency payments to continue the 2 wars
Look who started the spending and look how its leveled off
www.usgovernmentspending....
zfacts.com/p/318.html
majii
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
We do not have a “serious” spending problem, Ben. For those of us who are well-versed in economics, we know that what we have is a revenue problem. Because of our outdated tax code, it is possible for many Americans and large corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. The reasons so many Americans think we have a spending problem instead of a revenue problem are because:
1. They don’t have a good grasp of economics
2. They do little/no research of their own
3. They have allowed themselves to believe lying politicians, blog owners, radio entertainers, and Fox News who see their main job as being that of protecting the rich and corporations.
www.businessinsider.com/g...
www.theatlantic.com/busin...
www.motherjones.com/kevin...
prospect.org/article/wash...
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
Sounds legit. The problem with our revenue is that we didn’t pull that extra $80b a year out of the pockets of the rich, and not at all related to persistent double-digit employment.
inez
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 10:44 pm
Senator Bernie Sanders has exposed the names of 21corporations and banks who have avoided TWENTY EIGHT Billions in TAXES. That’s no small change. Cantor is becoming a Mormon. Their belief is that lying
is Ok if it benefits the liar Any Rynd believedthat only the rich are deserving. These are the basis for much of the GOPs actions. OH, Mitch Mc Connellhas been getting $$$$$ from gun mfgrs. WOW
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 9:55 am
What a remarkable chart that shows Obama has miraculously and entirely independently reduced the deficit all the way down to only twice the deficit of any budget Bush signed into law. Even more amazing is that he was able to do this entirely on the strength of continuing resolutions, since the Senate doesn’t bother itself with trifles like passing budget resolutions these days.
It certainly couldn’t have happened because the end of the TARP program meant that money was no longer being spent. It couldn’t have happened because the end of ARRA meant that money was no longer being spent. It couldn’t have happened because the end of the Iraq war meant that money was no longer being spent.
No, this is a testament to the amazing Obama and his uncanny ability to spend ONLY a trillion more than the amount of revenue on hand. Hey remember that time that he cut TWO HUNDRED BILLION dollars out of a single-year budget? Yeah, that was awesome! It totally happened when he… when he… what exactly did he cut out of that budget again, to the tune of $200b?
No matter, it was on Rachel Maddow, which means it’s just as true as a Wisconsin budget surplus and Bush never interviewing with the NYT.
majii
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
I sense that you’re angry for some unknown reason, Schaef. The numbers are what they are. The CBO crunches the numbers and publishes the reports. It seems that your main issue is that you don’t want to believe the data because President Obama is in the WH. Well, prepare for this shock–the CBO projections show that the deficit will shrink to $845 Billion for the year 2013.
“Compared to the size of the economy, the deficit in 2013 is much lower than in 2009, when Obama took office, the CBO noted. The deficit will be 5.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, nearly half the 10.1 percent of GDP in 2009.”
thehill.com/blogs/on-the-...
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
So sarcasm automatically equates to anger in your mind?
“Well, prepare for this shockâthe CBO projections show that the deficit will shrink to $845 Billion for the year 2013.”
Why would that shock me immediately after I noted that it is twice the deficit of any budget Bush signed into law?
The only reason the deficit has been declining as a share of GDP is that the GDP has been inching forward over a period of five years, while the government has been content to run on continuing resolutions in lieu of any real budget.
In short, all the money that was supposed to be one-time emergency spending in the immediate wake of the collapse became the new benchmark for spending. So people marvel at how Obama has “only” increased spending by a fraction of a percent by GDP – year on year – from a year of extraordinary crisis which people are now treating as the norm rather than the outlier.
We have had trillion-dollar deficits non-stop throughout this entire first term, and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and the only thing casting even a hope to push it below thirteen-digits is a huge sequester of outlays which I will point out the administration is now trying to AVOID.
The fact that anyone is celebrating trillion-dollar deficits indefinitely boggles the mind.
shagdrum
Feb. 12th, 2013 at 1:47 am
First, CBO estimates are completely worthless (unless you want to show me how static analysis is somehow more accurate that dynamic analysis).
Second, metrics that compare some aspect of the economy (tax revenue, deficit) tend to be misleading (and GDP is an awful metric in itself).
Third, when it comes to the official deficit, should we go over all the shoddy accounting used to create misleading info. Any private sector entity engaging in those accounting practices would be brought up on charges.
The Schaef
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
I also note that you did not cite anything that Obama specifically cut from the budget that lowered the deficit from $1.3t in 2011 to $1.1t in 2012.
shagdrum
Feb. 12th, 2013 at 1:50 am
They can’t. We haven’t had any real budget cuts during Obama’s years…or at least the past 30 years for that matter. Reducing the rate that government grows is not the same as actually cutting spending. But the absurd method of “scoring” used by the CBO and the baseline budgeting from which they work only serve to distort reality and allow the political class to rig the numbers in their favor.
Marlo Bailey
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 12:47 pm
What everyone here seems to ignore is that congress under most of Bush’s administration was liberal. Fox news is the best place for the truth, at least it is balanced and not leftest. As usual, liberals are all for passing the buck to the republicans when it suits their purpose. That purpose being, to protect obama and his socialist agenda. I thought more people would wake up to the fact that obama and his administration is ruining our country. I was a democrat for many years and I finally smelled the coffee. So what is wrong with you?
labman57
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Cantor and his fellow Congressional Republicans are not against federal spending — whether it be useful or unnecessary, budgeted or not — per se. They simply cannot stomach funding for projects and programs which conflict with their political agendas and ideology.
gerf
Feb. 11th, 2013 at 2:57 pm
Bush wasn’t in office and the Dems had complete control in 2009 + 800 billion dollar Stimulus so even if Cantor voted for all this stuff , how are the Libs not at least just as much to blame ?