If you look at the video in the post below, we capture several instances of how these Republicans live detached from reality. At one point before the cited Hannity quote, California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy says,
This [Obama] administration, we’ve only had 44 in the history of America, you take all the 43 prior and you add up all the debt they created, this administration has doubled it.
Sorry, not true. This is just another “fact” pulled from the ass of a Republican. It’s ironic that McCarthy should say this at the Ronald Reagan Library.
Here are the facts. We can thank Reagan for taking a $994 billion debt at the end of the Carter administration and nearly tripling it into $2.87 trillion. No president in history ever came close to doubling it, much less tripling it. Bush the Elder then almost doubled it up to $4.35 trillion. Clinton then added 75% more in eight years leaving it at $5.73 trillion, which barely compares with the destruction of his two spend happy predecessors. Then of course we have the 8-years of Bush the Younger who again doubled the national debt taking it to $10.7 trillion.
Remember that these doublings are exponential. It took 200 years to bring the national debt to $944 billion. Reagan added $1.88 trillion, Bush I added $1.48 trillion, Clinton $1.38 trillion, Bush II a whopping $4.97 trillion.
According to some estimates, the national debt is now at $12.68 trillion. This is indeed alarming and concern for the national debt is a very real and serious. It is eventually unsustainable. But, if you want to discuss the debt, let’s be serious about the facts.
When I hear these Republicans bitch about the debt but sing the praises of Reagan, I can’t take them seriously at all. The right-wing is a dumb-ass clown show.