RNC 'national debt clock' points out their own failure

[RedStateLiberal]

From: Bloomberg Businessweek



[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Republicans Kick Off the Convention by Showing They've Failed to Reduce the Debt[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Tropical Storm Isaac is turning out to be little more than a drizzle here in Tampa so far, but the possibility of severe weather still to come has the Republican National Committee playing it safe and prepping for the main events to start tomorrow. Today’s only official business is at 2 p.m. That’s when RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will call the convention to order, then click the start button on a giant “national debt clock.” (After that, he’ll call a recess until tomorrow.)

Mounted above the main stage, the clock will start at $15.9 trillion, and tick…tock…tick…tock … count out how much the national debt grows during the four-day convention.

---SNIP---

Mitt Romney often points out that the national debt has increased by $5 trillion under President Obama. According to the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, it’s not fair to pin the entire increase on the president’s policies. (Check out Kessler’s chart-filled analysis here.) Although there was an explosion of spending when Obama took office, most of it, like the $787 billion 2009 stimulus package, was meant to rescue an economy in free fall—an economy inherited from a Republican administration. President Bush initiated tax cuts that added $1.7 trillion to the national debt, and launched two wars that increased spending dramatically (current tab: $1.3 trillion). Both parties had a chance to resolve the debt crisis last summer, and didn’t.

Convention stagecraft is carefully calibrated to convey a message about the state of the country, and show how the nominee will fix the nation’s problems. If the debt clock is supposed to remind Americans of why Republicans are in Tampa, as Priebus says, it may also help people remember the party is partly to blame.

Read More:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-27/republicans-kick-off-the-convention-by-showing-theyve-failed-to-reduce-the-debt

[demwing]

1. It's like having a relative that goes thousand$ into the hole

and then criticizes you for going over your budget when you help pay off his credit card debt.

[Lyocell]

2. How are they supposed to calculate the national debt

Are they just adding interest to estimate?
Or is there a resource with up to date information on the debt?

[mikekohr]

3. The Last 3 Republican Presidents added $9.2 Trillion to the Debt -graph-

?

Every President, from Truman to Carter, steadily paid down the staggering debt that was run up in our fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. That pattern came to a screeching halt with Reagan/Bush and Bush. Clinton’s fiscal policy was a brief respite during this orgy of deficit spending.

Clinton's economic policies balanced 5 budgets, which is 5 more balanced budgets than the last 5 Republican presidents combined.

President Obama, like President Clinton, inherited a sea of red ink and a recession from his predecessor. He, like President Clinton, recognizes the importance of getting America back to work and then getting our fiscal house in order.


read more at: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/national-debt.html