The Fiscal Deficit Crisis in the United States :: Government Politics Political Bush Essays

The Fiscal Deficit Crisis in the United States Since the inauguration of George W. Bush as the president of the United States in January 2001, a series of issues and problems have appeared. President Bush created problems in education, finance, medicare, social security, as well as foreign affairs. In addition, he has turned a 500 billion dollar surplus into a 500 billion dollar deficit (â€Å"Historical Tables† 2004, 21-22). We must ask how he could do this. Were funds spent on improving education, social security, or healthcare? No, in fact these areas were under-funded. Rather the deficit is a result of over-spending on defense, homeland security, and tax cuts across the country. In the 20th century, there were 73 years with a deficit in the government budget. The problem has become a very serious issue since 1958, since which there was a deficit in the fiscal budget nearly every year (â€Å"Historical Tables†, 2004, 21-22). During the mid-1990's, when Bill Clinton was the president, the deficit was reduced and net surplus occurred in 1998 and 1999. After George W. Bush had taken office, the trend of having surplus in fiscal reports couldn't continue. During every year of his term, George Bush increased the United States debt significantly. One hundred-fifty-seven billion dollars was the deficit in 2002, while 521 billion dollars was the deficit in the fiscal year of 2004 (â€Å"Historical Tables†, 2004, 21-22). The American government's debt is increasing at $20,000 per second. A person with an average-income will lose his annual salary in a matter of few seconds due to the rapidly increasing debt (US Debt Clock). This is a very important issue to teenagers and college students, as they will soon have to carry the financial burden from the United States government. The underlying reason for the deficit in the budget is due to the mismanagement in the spending and taxing policies adopted by the President. The terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, the crash of the stock market after that event, the war on Iraq, and the increased homeland security aggregated the problem of the budget deficit. If President George W. Bush is re-elected and continues to ignore this problem, the United States will continue to build up its huge debt. By 2009, the Gross Federal Debt will be over one thousand billion dollars, and that would transfer to every person living in the United States to have a debt of about $36000 (â€Å"Historical Tables†, 2004, 118-119).