[Vision2020] Roger's Dilemma: was HJR 7

[Joe Campbell]

Roger wrote: "The House of Representatives control the budget, not the
President. Democrats were in charge of the House under Bush. You can
not be Serious in thinking the dept has gone down under Obama and the
democratically controled House."

The budget started to rise when Reagan was President. I looked it up
and according to Answers.com "In the House, Democrats had the majority
through both Reagan and Bush, Sr.'s Presidencies, until the
Republicans gained the majority (in both the House and Senate) in 1995
(election of 1994)."

Suppose we agree with your assumption that the Democrats are
responsible for the raising of the budget. The story Republicans like
to tell about the fall of the USSR is that Reagan got the Russians in
an arms race and it led to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union.
But if the point you make above is true, the House is in complete
control of spending. If they get the credit for raising the deficit
under Reagan and Bush, THEY and not Reagan should get the credit for
the collapse of the USSR. You can't have it both ways.

The fact is the President can make decisions that impact the budget.
Our current budget deficit began when Bush decided to start two wars.
They were approved by Congress but it was his decision as commander in
chief. I'm sure if the wars had gone well you'd be taking credit for
them, just as you take credit for Reagan's ending the cold war. But
you can't have it both ways.

Lastly, I'm basing my Obama comment on information like the following:

"2009 budget (Bush's last, as you point out) had an estimated deficit
of $407 billion (source). 2010 budget (Obama's first) now has a
deficit that has been reduced to $1.28 trillion (your source). That
having been said, further down the page it says that the 2009 deficit
increased after full tax receipts were tallied, and that raised the
estimated deficit to $1.4 trillion, which would be more than $1.28
trillion."

It can be found on Science Forums:
http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/52387-american-politics-has-truly-hit-a-new-low/page__st__40__p__570201#entry570201

I'm not an economist but there are other sources on the web that make
similar claims. What are the sources of your information?