The other day I got an email which contained the following passage:

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” Senator Barrack Obama, March 2006 (Portion of speech from Senate floor).

In addition, he went on to make a point of noting that in the last five years (2001 – 2006) the debt was raised from $5.1 Trillion to $8.6 trillion, highlighting the fact that it was trillion with a capital “T”. For those who just cannot grasp what a trillion dollar is, read “What is a TrillionDollars?”

I generally abhor political emails as much as I do the ones that start off with “if you forward this email in the next 13.5 seconds to everyone in your address book your life will be perfect…..”

But it made me think, which is what I think a lot of us really should be doing more of.

Now, before someone corrects me and says “that’s only a portion of the speech,” I know. I just don’t see a reason to go through the whole thing. This isn’t an attack on President Obama. This is about the politics of lying and it is something that is shared equally between democrats and republicans.

I recently read a commentary on a particular article that started off addressing the debt issue but devolved into name calling which I loathe. Why some people feel the need to resort to name calling I will never know, but if you are looking for a reason of why we are the place we are, that would be high on the list. If you can’t agree to be civil, you will never resolve any problem that faces you. However I digress.

The author pointed out something that I think was lost. The author correctly pointed out that the first year President Obama was in office, when the federal budget jumped from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion, actually was passed during President Bush’s term. You know the whole “I inherited a mess” saga.

Now, if you have read the other posts on this site, you will have learned one thing. I find fault with both parties. I believe in my heart that politicians are habitual liars who will say and do anything to get a vote. It’s the heart of the problem and the reason why I don’t see things improving.

What I take exception to in President Obama’s speech is the fact that he is pandering.

Consider for a moment that the last time the United States made any serious attempt to pay down its national debt was immediately after WWI. At that time we owed a whopping twenty-seven billion dollars. By the time the great depression hit, we had paid down the debt to sixteen billion.

In fact, the last year we would actually pay down the debt from the previous year was 1956.

In 1911 our national debt was just under three billion dollars. A century later it was fifteen trillion. During that period of time there have been nine republican presidents and eight democrats. Does anyone honestly believe that both parties are not at fault? It seems clear to me that everyone has added to the debt, the only question is by how much.

Here’s the problem as I see it.

Are we as a nation becoming so polarized by party, that we are re-writing history to glorify our party while excoriating the other for the same misdeeds?

In other words, when did we begin to re-define common sense?

Consider these Treasury Department statistics for a moment:

When Lyndon Johnson left office in 1969, the national debt was $368,225,581,254.41.

When Richard Nixon left office in 1974, the national debt was $469,898,039,554.70.

When Gerald Ford leaves office in 1977, the national debt was $653,544,000,000.00 (the veracity of these numbers is actually questionable. Nothing in Government ever ends in .00).

When Jimmy Carter leaves office in 1980, the national debt was $930,210,000,000.00 (the veracity of these numbers is actually questionable, same reason as above).

When Ronald Reagan leaves office in 1988, the national debt was $2,602,337,712,041.16.

When George Bush (41) leaves office in 1992, the national debt was $4,064,620,655,521.66.

When Bill Clinton leaves office in 2000, the national debt was $5,674,209,886,860.00

When George Bush (43) leaves office in 2008, the national debt was $10,024,724,896,912.49.

As of this post, the national debt has officially exceeded $16,000,000,000,000.00.

Now before you go and blast me about well President so and so had this issue, or such and such faced this. Answer this question, every family has good times and bad ones financially. One year that bonus check sits there looking great in your savings, the next year little Tiffany needs braces and wham, that bonus is history. So why do we expect the average Joe Citizen to be fiscally responsible, yet give a pass to the idiots in D.C. who never met a dollar bill they didn’t want to spend.

As it stands today, the United States brings in approximately 2.4 trillion dollars a year in revenue and spends 3.5 trillion a year.

My point in all these mind numbing numbers is this. When do we stop the madness?

At what point do we stop vilifying politicians who have the audacity to say we need to, tighten our budget, stop this spending and return some semblance of fiscal order to our home.

You want Social Security that you paid into all these years ? You want Medicare ? Well then someone better come up with a better plan then “IOU.”

Someone once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Prologue

On April 15, 2011 George Stephanopoulos conducted an interview with President Obama who made the following comment in regards to his March 2006 speech:

“I think that it’s important to understand the vantage point of a Senator versus the vantage point of a…President.  When you’re a Senator, traditionally what’s happened is this is always a lousy vote.  Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit for the United States by a trillion dollars… As President, you start realizing, "You know what?  We– we can’t play around with this stuff.  This is the full faith in credit of the United States."  And so that was just a example of a new Senator,  you know, making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country.  And I’m the first one to acknowledge it.”

So I guess the truth is you can say anything to get elected, but do what you want after you win.

And is it any wonder why we are in the predicament we are.