Tag Archives: george bush

Suddenly, Deficits Don’t Matter Anymore

by Glinda6576 Posted on December 17, 2015

Mother Jones

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Republicans and Democrats have agreed on a year-end budget package that will increase the deficit by around $500 billion or so. There’s been a bit of grumbling about the bill from the Republican side, but mostly it’s not about the spending. It’s about the lack of shutdown bait like defunding Planned Parenthood and banning Syrian refugees. Paul Waldman comments:

Let’s be honest: despite all their talk about what we’re handing to the next generation and how government should balance its books just like a family does, when it comes down to actually making choices, Republicans are no more concerned about deficits than Democrats are. Crying about the deficit is a tool they use to constrain policies they don’t like. When it comes to the policies they do like, how much the government will have to borrow to fund them is barely an afterthought. So can we stop pretending they actually care about deficits?

I doubt it. Loads of people have been making this very simple point for years and years, but it’s done no good despite the plain evidence of the past few decades. Reagonomics was explicitly built on the idea that Republicans had paid far too much attention to deficits in the past. George Bush the Elder passed a budget bill that actually did reduce the deficit, and was pilloried for it. George Bush Jr. blew up the deficit with tax cuts and Republicans thought it was great. Over the past 35 years, the only time Republicans have seriously tried to rein in the deficit was during the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Republicans routinely insist that they care deeply about balanced budgets, and just as routinely this claim gets reported at face value. All the evidence in the world points in exactly the opposite direction, but it doesn’t matter: the conventions of journalism require reporters to pass along what politicians say, not what they mean. Overall, this is probably a good thing. But it sure does make it hard for the average joe to understand what’s really going on.

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Suddenly, Deficits Don’t Matter Anymore

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Obama Is Actually the Third President to Install Solar Panels at the White House

by greenenergy4 Posted on August 16, 2013

Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid

While the Obamas are away on vacation this week, ABC reports, their famous residence will be outfitted with energy-saving solar panels. But this is actually the third time that a sitting president has had solar panels installed on White House. In the past, however, solar installations at the presidential mansion have been met with less support—and less fanfare.

Jimmy Carter was ahead of the times. In 1977, he declared that the country was entering an energy crisis. To set a good example, he set about installing 32 solar panels on the White House in 1979. Carter declared that, “a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people; harnessing the power of the Sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” 

When Ronald Reagan took office, however, he promptly stripped the residency of its recently installed solar panels: his chief of staff reportedly thought the panels were “a joke,” says the Washington Post. Ten years later, those downtrodden panels were given a second though less glamorous chance at life, this time at Maine Unity College’s cafeteria.

In 2003, George W. Bush, seemingly acting out of character, brought solar back to the White House. American City and Country reported on the development a decade ago:

The National Park Service, which manages the White House complex, installed a nine kilowatt, rooftop solar electric or photovoltaic system, as well as two solar thermal systems that heat water used on the premises.

Two solar thermal systems, one to heat the pool and spa and one to provide domestic hot water, were also installed.

“With solar systems popping up on homes, businesses and farms across the country, it’s most appropriate to have solar providing energy for America’s most recognizable home,” said Glenn Hamer, executive director at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

With the Obama administration’s latest additions, the White House will increase its solar capacity with 20 to 50 new panels, USA Today reports. The administration added that the installation should pay for itself within eight years.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Can Solar Survive the Solyndra Swirl?  
Energy Efficiency at the White House

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Obama Is Actually the Third President to Install Solar Panels at the White House

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