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Posts: 2397
Sep 26 10 7:06 PM
AI IV,I drew my 20% number from OMB report (that's the White House's Office of Management and Budget). Here's a link to the webpage:http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/HistoricalsSee Table 4.2 When you click on it, it will open a Microsoft Excel file. According to OMB, 'Defense' (Line 7) comprised 18.1% of the annual federal budget for 2009. Coupled with 'Other Defense-Civil Programs' (Line 21), which comprised 1.5%, defense spending comprised 19.6%. So I just rounded up. I suppose Veterans Affairs spending could be added in, but that was only 3.2%, bringing the overall total to 22.8%. Of a $3.5 trillion annual budget, that amounts just under $800 billion. With Obama's spending spree leading to an annual budget deficit of somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion, even if Defense spending were to be cut off entirely, that would still leave an annual deficit of around $700 billion. Remember: The highest annual deficit when Bush was president and Republicans controlled Congress was $412 billion (2004). The 2008 deficit was $468 billion while Bush was president but the Democrats held the majority in Congress. These numbers come from the same link above, Table 1.3You'll notice Table 1.3 shows that annual deficits were declining until 2008 and revenues were climbing every year from 2004 to 2007. Spending increased every year as well, but jumped $260 billion in 2008. Democrats controlled Congress at that time and budgets originate in the House of Reps. Certainly Republicans were complicit in deficit spending. But if Bush was spending like a 'drunken sailor', it's not clear just how to characterize Obama's spending, which has been tremendously higher.For what it's worth . . .later. iowan15
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