Ronald Reagan ran against a $1trillion national debt in 1980. Bill Clinton gave us “surpluses as far as the eye can see.” Reagan, Bush I and Bush II slammed through tax cuts for Big Oil, Big Pharma, corporations and the ultra-rich and ran the national debt up to some $12 trillion.
As of the writing of this post, the national debt is some $14.34 trillion and counting. The facts don’t lie; Republicans under Reagan, Bush I and Bush II added about $11 trillion to our national debt since 1980. [1]
Now, however, Republicans want to tie raising the debt ceiling to spending cuts. [2] Now, Republicans want more tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-rich and tell us that any tax increase is off the table. Now, Republicans want to destroy Medicare by replacing it with a fixed vouche [3]r that buys what little coverage for seniors at whatever price insurers want to charge.
America doesn’t have a debt problem, America has a Republican problem. More and more, voters agree. A recent poll [4]shows voters overwhelmingly think Republicans just blame President Obama rather than proposing solutions of their own. The same poll shows that voters overwhelmingly support tax increases on the most wealthy of Americans to make up federal deficits.
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