Sen. Dorgan: Republicans Ignore Facts and Their Own Record as Democrats Strengthen Economy...

Sen. Byron Dorgan
Democratic U.S. Senator from North Dakota
Posted: February 4, 2010 02:46 PM

Republicans Ignore Facts and Their Own Record as Democrats Strengthen Economy, Work to Create More Jobs


When Republicans in Washington, D.C. launch their non-stop "anti-Obama" rhetoric, they do so from an "evidence-free" zone, where everything is President Obama's fault and their own record doesn't matter. That's a place far, far from reality.

Their criticism of President Obama's just released budget doesn't just overlook a number of historical important facts, it pole vaults over them. A new policy paper released by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, which I chair, brings those facts back into the public discussion. I encourage you to read it, and another recent policy paper that documents the policies that brought the economy back from the brink of disaster over the past year. You can watch me preview these policy papers, here.

Here's a brief look at some of that history. When President George W. Bush took office, President Clinton passed onto him a unified federal budget with a $236 billion surplus. Budget surpluses were projected for at least the next ten years. We were actually poised to be able to start paying down the national debt, instead of adding to it.

When President Bush left office, he handed President Obama a $1.3 trillion deficit. Even larger deficits were projected for the next ten years. The economy was on the verge of complete meltdown. How did President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress turn billions of dollars in surplus into more than a trillion dollars of deficit? They cut taxes for the rich, deeply, not once but twice. They entered two wars. They paid for none of it. The cost for all of it was simply put on the national credit card.

During the Bush years, they ran up more national debt than all the Presidents before him - combined!

For the past year, President Obama and Democrats in Congress have been working to bring our economy back from the edge of disaster. Cleaning up the mess the GOP created and left behind has proven to be, as one would expect, expensive.

Have all the problems been solved? No. They weren't created in one year and they were never likely to be solved in one year, especially in the first year of a new President's term. But the President and his Democratic allies in Congress have made substantial progress.

Of course, Republicans are busy denying that progress, even as they work to block it.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-byron-dorgan/republicans-ignore-facts_b_449739.html