DEBT CEILING & DEFICIT, COVID & DEATH TOLL

 

The hypocritical Republicans are going to force the Dems to go it alone on raising the debt ceiling, even though the vast majority of this country's debt was incurred by GOP presidents running up budget deficits, despite Democratic presidents' success in reducing those deficits. (The national debt is all those deficits accumulated, minus whatever we have paid off.)

Lyndon Baines Johnson (D)
     Assumed office November 1963: $5 billion deficit
     Left office January 1969: $3 billion surplus
     Decreased deficit by $8 billion
Richard Nixon (R)
     Assumed office January 1969: $3 billion surplus
     Left office August 1974: $6 billion deficit
     Increased deficit by $9 billion
Gerald Ford (R)
     Assumed office August 1974: $6 billion deficit
     Left office January 1977: $54 billion deficit
     Increased deficit by $48 billion
Jimmy Carter (D)
     Assumed office January 1977: $54 billion deficit
     Left office January 1981: $79 billion deficit
     Increased deficit by $25 billion
Ronald Reagan (R)
     Assumed office January 1981: $79 billion deficit
     Left office January 1989: $153 billion deficit
     Increased deficit by $74 billion
George H.W Bush (R)
     Assumed office January 1989: $153 billion deficit
     Left office January 1993: $255 billion deficit
     Increased deficit by $102 billion
Bill Clinton (D)
     Assumed office January 1993: $255 billion deficit
     Left office January 2001: $128 billion surplus
     Decreased deficit by $383 billion
George W. Bush (R)
     Assumed office January 2001: $128 billion surplus
     Left office January 2009: $1.4 trillion deficit
     Increased deficit by $1.5 trillion
Barack Obama (D)
     Assumed office January 2009: $1.4 trillion deficit
     Left office January 2017: $665 billion deficit
     Decreased deficit by $735 billion
Donald Trump (R)
     Assumed office January 2017: $665 billion deficit
     Left office January 2020: $3.7 trillion deficit
     Increased deficit by $3 trillion

So in the past 58 years, only one Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, had a larger budget deficit in his last year in office than he inherited from his predecessor. All six Republican presidents had larger deficits in their last budgets than they were handed at the start of their term.

In other words, Republicans love to spend taxpayer money like drunken sailors. And yet so many gullible voters have swallowed the GOP line that it's the Democrats who waste money, the basis for McConnell's current laughable refusal to raise the debt ceiling.
 

Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US From the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University Confirmed US cases: 43,909,490 Confirmed US deaths: 704,550 From The New York Times COVID-19 map and case count: VACCINATIONS Fully vaccinated: 56 percent of all Americans Partially vaccinated: 9 percent of all Americans No shots: 35 percent of all Americans Seven-day average of daily vaccinations: 893,520 A month ago: 939,579 INFECTIONS 7-day average of new infections: 106,941 people A month ago: 161,004 people HOSPITALIZATIONS Sunday: 70,353 people were in the hospital A month ago: 102,470 people were in the hospital DEATHS Yesterday: 2.036 Americans died A month ago: 1,979 Americans died in one day Johnson & Johnson could ask the FDA as soon as today for authorization of a booster shot to go with its original one-shot vaccine. In fact, in anticipation of this request, the FDA's advisory group already scheduled a meeting to consider it on Oct. 15. That's one day after it will meet to discuss, and probably approve, a Moderna booster. As you know, the FDA and CDC already authorized a booster for the Pfizer vaccine for certain groups of people. Each of Moderna's first two shots contained 100 micrograms of mRNA, and it is asking for permission to give a booster that contains 50 micrograms. By contrast, all three of Pfizer's shots contain 30 micrograms of mRNA. The J&J vaccine does not use mRNA.

FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE