When it comes to debt and deficits, facts matter

Kari Chisholm

Now that Senator Merkley is drawing challengers, we're going to be treated to Republican candidates prattling on about the debt and deficit.

Of course, most of the debt lies squarely at the feet of the the last three Republican presidents. Over at Daily Kos, blogger 'Mikesco' summarizes it all rather nicely:

Republicans (the ones in office and in the punditry) do not make sense to me.

When Reagan was President, they did not care about debt - Reagan tripled the national debt and they responded by making Reagan their hero.

When Clinton took office, all they wanted to talk about was debt, saying it was because Clinton was a big spender. Clinton eventually balanced the budget and even made a trillion dollar surplus with his smart policies, but conservatives attacked him then, too - saying that if the budget was balanced and we were finally paying off the debt, then somehow it meant that the American taxpayer had been 'over charged' and were due a 'refund' which meant massively cutting taxes.

When Bush was elected, he frittered away the entire surplus with tax cuts, then doubled the national debt. Cheney even said "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" when his party offered to pass the largest deficit in history. Most Republicans said nothing.

Now that Obama is president, they are once again making noise about the debt, shutting down the government and threatening default - even though the deficit is falling at its fastest rate in 50 years!

And of course, these very same Republicans will also blather on about repealing ObamaCare - claiming that repeal will reduce our deficit. But that assertion is blatantly false. Repealing ObamaCare will cause the deficit to get worse. Here's just a a couple of really clear fact checks:

CNN Fact Check:

ASSERTION: Repealing Obamacare will add to the deficit. ... VERDICT: True.

PolitiFact:

Mitt Romney said repealing 'Obamacare' would save $95 billion in 2016. ... We were surprised by his suggestion. As we remembered the health care negotiations, Democrats took pains to make sure the 2010 health care law was projected to reduce the deficit, and they bragged repeatedly about their numbers. ... In fact, the law included new taxes and cost reductions so that the actual savings for the year he cited would be much smaller -- $16 billion. And, over the long haul, repealing the law actually adds significantly to the deficit. So we rate his statement False.

As we enter the campaign season, we're going to have lots of claims and counterclaims. Here's hoping that those who cover the campaigns will actually call out misstatements of fact directly in the news coverage, rather than just transcribing what both sides have claimed and relegating fact-checking to the PolitiFact and Ad Watch ghettos.

And courtesy of Congressman Bill Foster, here's a version of the infamous "debt clock" that actually separates out the debt that occurred under Republican and Democratic administrations:

By Kari Chisholm Oct. 13, 2013