if it weren't for the Bush tax cuts.

the rest of the world does on national defense has "out of control" MIC spending.

programs and raise defence spending. The reason the right turned a surplus into a deficit was to have reason to gut domestic spending.

highest marginal income rate at or near historical lows sweetened with favorable rates on capital gains, favorable taxation of dividends, and special treatment of so-called "carried interest" so those of der Mittens ilk pay an effective Federal income tax rate on $20 million+incomes of just slightly higher than the rate of payroll taxes paid on the lowest earned income. The right has won this battle and the stark impact of this gross tax inequity is buried in governmental data for all to see and weep.

they should look in the mirror; both Bushes and Reagan ran up the debt like madmen. They're the sorriest excuses for real fiscal conservatism ever. If they really care about the debt, then they'd agree to trim down the military a little; we already almost spend more on it than every other developed country combined.

Congress approves it. If they think it's out of control, they're talking about themselves.

The real truth is that it's coded argument over who gets the spoils. Federal spending is the fuel to the economic engine. Without catastrophic inflation, arguing that it's too high is like arguing one has too much air to breathe.

The $17 trillion dollar debt is mostly the result of the Bush taxcuts, the Bush wars, and the Bush depression. Very little is due to spending by Barack Obama.