Driving The Debt Car During Carter's Second Term

The National Debt Roadtrip - A graphic illustration on the proportion of Federal Government spending under Barack Obama, his Administration and the current U.S. Congress [Crtl-Click image to launch video]. Image Credit: PDF Conversion by Edmund Jenks (2009)

Driving The Debt Car During Carter's Second Term

How did the national debt get so big? How do the Obama deficits compare with past presidents?

This video attempts to illustrate the answer to those questions by looking at the debt as a road trip and seeing how fast different administrations have been traveling.

A common reaction many of us hear who are upset and concerned with the huge expansion of federal spending and thus a dramatic increase in the national debt is, "What about W's [George W. Bush] rampant spending!" To which us fiscal conservatives will say, "We didn't like that either, and said so at the time." (NOTE: Barack Obama as a Senator, voted for and approved the rampant spending of the Bush Administration)

Many "PROGRESSIVES" dismiss this, mistakenly assuming fiscal conservatives believe and behave the same as the Republican members in Congress. To be honest, this issue of debt accumulation and spending is neither Conservative or Liberal ... but it is Progressive.

This brief YouTube video does a superb job of showing why most level headed citizens are so upset over the fiscal policies of the Obama Administration and Congress (started under Bush last fall). The expansion of Federal Government and the massive spending passed over the first 100 days of the 44th Presidency is historic, and not necessarily in a good way.



This excerpted and edited from PoliticalMath -

The National Debt Road Trip – Complaint 1
May 16, 2009

I had a commenter for the National Debt Road Trip call BS on some of my numbers, so I wanted to run some sample numbers to make sure that I’m being as transparent as possible.

Complaint: “Obama’s projected to add about 9 trillion. That isn’t three times as much as Bush’s nearly 5 trillion.”

First of all, let’s get the numbers right. In raw unadjusted dollars, Bush increased the debt from $5.674 trillion to $10.024 trillion. That is $4.35 trillion, not five. And Obama has projected that he will increase it from $10.024 trillion to $20.004 trillion, which is $9.979 trillion … far closer to $10 trillion than to $9 trillion.
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But still, $10 trillion is not three times $4.35 trillion. But that’s where inflation adjustment comes in. According to this inflation calculator, $5.674 trillion in 2000 dollars is the same as $7.035 trillion in 2008 dollars. This makes the inflation adjusted difference between the 2000 debt and the 2008 debt just $2.94 trillion.

I gave Obama a break by assuming that his team didn’t adjust for future inflation, so I made adjustements to his numbers, which meant cutting about $1.6 trillion off the debt leaving us with $18.4 trillion. This means he plans on increasing the debt by about $8.2 trillion (rounding down).

8.2 / 2.94 = 2.79 (the coefficient determining the speed calculation)

64 mph * 2.79 = 178.37 mph

Which is actually a shade faster than I said Obama was going.

I know most liberals aren’t going to believe this, but I really am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. In this video alone, I underestimated the inflation adjusted debt and I rounded everything down for him. If he still doesn’t look good, it’s not my fault.
Reference Here>>

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