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National debt increased 60% under Speaker Pelosi

Good riddance Speaker Pelosi

By: Dan Spencer (Diary)  |  January 3rd, 2011 at 10:00 AM  | 

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There are lots of reasons I will not miss Nancy Pelosi‘s extreme left wing speakership. There’s Air Pelosi and radical legislation such Cap and Tax and ObamaCare. But the biggest reason to cheer the end of the ultra-Liberal/Progressive Pelosi Speakership is the national debt.

In the four years that Pelosi was Speaker the national debt increased an unbelievable 60%.

When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04 — that’s $8.67 trillion. Today, the last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership, the national debt is $13,871,130,353,817.40 — that’s $13.87 trillion. A $5.2 trillion in just four years.

The Pelosi debt works out to $44,662 for every man, woman and child who make up the 310,574,015 U.S. populace.

And Liberals wonder why they are perceived as big spenders.

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  • fpete13527

    ….if not immediately reversed.

    The GOP needs to be a firm UNWAVERING stand to NOT allow ANY raise in debt limit EVEN TEMPORARILY.

    NO COMPROMISE.

    • Death_of_the_Donkey

      unless you are willing to either raise taxes or give up power in 2012. In order to get under the current debt ceiling with current tax rates would take something on the order of eliminating all defense spending or completely getting rid of social security (even for those already on it). Simply put, there is no politically possible way to do that. However, putting forward a good plan to reduce debt in the future, coupled with a remake (from scratch) of the tax code should greatly reduce our needs to borrow going forward.

      • alexrylie

        How about we reduce the social giveaway “Johnson/Kennedy” program by about 75%, then farm out the U.S.Postal Office which lose’s about 250 Billion $ a year, reduce the Federal Emp’s by about 20%, stop ALL Foriegn aid for a couple years for starters??? Increase the cost of Visa/NIS inbound citizens to around $150,000 per person to pay for them coming in, and last but not least deport the 20 million illegals that are costing the States Billions of $$ each year to feed, Incarcerate, School, take care of their Medical, Dental.Vision and P.G. every 9 months?????? Not to mentin the Millions of untaxed $$ they send back to Mex each year..

        • tayten

          I agree with you! That would be a great start. US postal service is proof that a government run agency can Not make money. They continue to lose money Big $$ every year. That’s why they can’t be allowed to run our healthcare system either!
          I would add another thing to your list, and that would be to stop immigration from anywhere, specifically radical muslims, who are coming here in larger numbers and trying to take over this country from within!! They are a threat to the American way of life. They could here and make demands, build mosques everywhere, and use their unending flow of money to work against US!!
          Stand strong for America and protecting this country, every way we can! There is a grass-roots effort spreading across this country, of citizens just like us, who are 1 by 1 committing to protect our country, just like our military is protecting US! They want God’s America back. You can join too: www.PatrioticChristiansToday.com This is a different world we live in so Today’s Christians have to act differently!

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    I mean I despised Pelosi (and that Congress) as much as the next conservative, but to blame the increase of the debt entirely on her is a bit sophomoric don’t you think. Besides the fact that the president has a veto pen (and our side controlled the presidency for two of those years), the addition to the debt also has to do with revenues, which obviously collapsed during the last two years to far below any level (as a percent of GDP) that we have seen since the early 70′s. As a matter of fact, we are only just now getting back to the trough level from the 2001 recession (which was still very low).

    That isn’t to say that the debt is fine, it isn’t and it needs to be fixed soon before we get to a point of rising interest rates where the interest on the debt starts to become too big a part of our overall budget to be able to afford things we actually desire.

    • Dan Spencer

      The Democrat controlled Congress gets the credit for the soaring national debt because under the Constitution Congress controls the purse strings:

      Article I, Section. 8: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

      To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

      • Death_of_the_Donkey

        I never realized that Congress could act all by itself in regards to spending issues.

        • audax

          …on the first day of the new Congress. So our Representatives understand that too…..

        • pilgrim

          My mistake I never realized I would not be stopped from stealing. I am extremely grateful the Founders had the wisdom to put checks and balances into the US Constitution. I’m realist enough to know a thief will still not always be stopped.

    • JadedByPolitics

      the exploding debt did increase 100fold under Nancy Pelosi’s Congress. I think you are writing at the wrong site because if you think for one small moment that the debt this Country is under is not laid at the feet of the Freddie and Fannie Democrats you are delusional!

  • johnt

    I have tried to absorb that, in effect to crawl into the liberal[?] mind.
    Can’t do it, It seems to have something to do with who has the power, not the issue or problem itself. Meaning, there are no principles or integrity. But millions of littleliberals don’t mind.

  • http://www.defeatobama.com defeatobamacom

    Dan

    But liberals, and Pelosi, aren’t the only ones viewed as big spenders. The fact is Republicans have NOTHING to crow about. When we controlled the House, Senate and Presidency we did nothing to control spending.

    I am hopeful this new wave of Republicans will put us on the right path but until then it is just talk.

    • pilgrim

      Whe the GOP controlled both the House and the Senate they controlled spending enough to insure that there was a surplus in stead of a deficit in the federal budget for 4 years in a row. There are no instances when the Ds controlled both chambers that this occurred.

      • tedpomeroy

        W. never ran a deficit over 3% of GDP.

        There is now mounting evidence that the surpluses we ran from 1998 to 2000 might have hurt us in the long run.

        http://www.fcic.gov/hearings/pdfs/2010-0226-Gourinchas-ppt.pdf

        • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
        • msctex

          . . .who said, “For a government to take in one dollar more than it needs to function is immoral?”

          Probably bungled the quote a bit, but the gist is there.

        • Death_of_the_Donkey

          as opposed to accounting gimmicks, W actually was only under 4% twice (2001 and 2007), had a 7% in 2008, and 5%’s in 03/04. The ONLY way to fairly measure the deficit is taking the change in gross federal debt and dividing it by GDP.

      • penguin2

        In fact, Erick himself said “enough” in Vladimir’s post here:

        http://www.redstate.com/vladimir/2010/12/27/nyt-on-the-deepwater-horizon-disaster/#comment-5979

        Well if he has managed to start a new account, we already know what we’re dealing with, someone who doesn’t like Republicans or us very much.

        • Bill S
  • coffeeparty

    I was confused about who gets credit or who gets blame.

    Now that this has been settled, I think we should begin carving Mt. Rushmore with Tip’s face for his budgets that ended the Soviet Union.

    • itrytobenice

      Just because the House is responsible for tax and spending bills does not give them power over everything. But it does lay the deficit right at their feet.

    • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

      was Dems’ fear of Reagan’s political clout, not Dems clamoring for more funds for defense, intel and aid to rebels fighting Commies.

  • msctex

    If a doctor had somehow managed to commit a commensurately gross act of incompetence, he would be charged with malpractice. A lawyer would likewise be held to a set of standards of what is acceptable for a person of responsibility in our culture.

    But politicians are for some reason given free reign: as long as they can pretend “their heart was in the right place,” or hide behind some other wisp of metaphysical ether, they can do untold damage, and retire with a pension.

    They do these things because they can, to put it as simply as possible. And the chief reason they can, is because they are not afraid of consequences. And their is, unfortunately and inexplicably, no reason why they should be.

  • tlhanger

    I’ve always thought just give the check book to a woman and all our finacial woes will be solved. Then Pelosi comes along with liberal thinking and a penchant for big jets and lots of money , that isn’t hers and she goes to town spending even more than is what in the checkbook. Woe is me.

  • jaywa

    This is a little disengenuous. Bush was President during 2007 and 2008 and approved spending bills. In fact, he had already engaged in the failed philosophy of borrow-spend-to-prosperity that Obama continued thru 2010.

    If you look at the chart for our national debt you’ll see its spike began when Bush first took office. There are long-winded reasons for this but the point is that Bush engaged in failed progressive fiscal policies long before Obama continued them post-Crash.

    Our national financial problems are apolitical. Both parties (dems more than repubs) execute fiscal policies that are antithetical to a long-term recovery.

    Much of the problem has to do with the lack of political resolve to make the hard choices, choices that Mom Market will make for us one day at an expense that will make the Crash look like a mild recession.