Debt Ceiling and the Tea Party

The debt ceiling debate has continued, and the Tea Party Patriots (TPP) are demanding no debt ceiling increase under any circumstances. Their website has a list of “Four Big Lies” that members of congress are telling people about the debt ceiling. I thought I'd check the accuracy of some of what they state.

The TPP claims that “Obama increased spending and the size of government more than all previous presidents (from George Washington through George Bush) COBMINED.” I'm not sure how they define size of government (they seem to imply that they define it differently from spending), but it seems that they are basically saying that federal spending has more than doubled since the time Obama took office. My assumptions here are that each budget can generally be assumed to be progressively larger than the last, and that George Washington started at essentially zero. According to the Department of the Treasury, 2010 federal outlays were $3.456 trillion. We don't know exactly how much outlays for 2011 will be, but Obama's budget request was for $3.819 trillion. Obama's presidency began in 2009, but the 2009 budget was based on the final request submitted by George Bush, moreover, the fiscal year ends on September 30. Despite this, we'll be conservative and concede that 2009 was the year that Obama's influence began. Outlays for 2008 were $2.978 trillion. So even by these conservative numbers, Obama only increased spending by 28%, and the TPP claim appears to be utterly false. I thought that the TPP claim might be based on projections of outlays for future years listed in Obama's budget proposal, but even for 2021, the latest year projected (and a year long after Obama will have left the White House), the figure is only $5.697 trillion- still less than twice 2008 spending.

“Don't let socialism win,” the Tea Party Patriots urge in a piece criticizing attempts to get spending cuts or other conservative demands in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Ironically, some socialists have been demanding that the debt ceiling not be raised for years. Socialist Alternative formerly stated in it's program, “Cancel the national debt with no payment to the big investors. Use the money to rebuild the inner cities and the infrastructure under union conditions and wages.” Also see The Need for Socialist Policies. Of course, the more consistent Republicans have qualified their debt ceiling threats by saying that debt service should be prioritized, and the difference should be made up through other obligations (like social security and unemployment benefits).For now it seems that the Tea Party is living by the principle that you don't have to be responsible as long as you're not in power.