Under Dems, China’s Economy Rises While Ours Struggles

October 23, 2012

 

Under Dems, China’s Economy Rises While Ours Struggles

After Democrats’ Failed Stimulus Spending Spree, the National Debt is Much Bigger, China Owns More of It and America’s Economy Struggles to Recover 

  • Among the topics raised in last night’s presidential debate was the fact that China is rising as a global economic power, all while America’s economy continues to struggleunder the Democrats’ failed policies.

  • The Democrats’ response to America’s economic crisis has been to borrow money from countries like China so they can keep spending money we don’t have. Four years later, working families are still struggling, our national debt is $5.5 trillion bigger and China owns more than $1 trillion of our debt.

  • Democrats’ spending addiction is more than just a waste of money—it will hurt future economic growth. Economic studies have shown that rising debt levels are linked to less economic growth.

Among the topics raised in last night’s presidential debate was the fact that China is rising as a global economic power, all while America’s economy continues to struggleunder the Democrats’ failed policies:

CHINA NOW THE WORLD’S 2ND LARGEST ECONOMY, GROWING AT 7.4% FOR LAST QUARTER: “The 7.4% GDP increase was in line with analyst expectations. China’s economy has grown at an average of around 10% a year for the past three decades, allowing the country to rocket past international competition to become the world’s second largest economy.” (Charles Riley, “China’s GDP Growth Slides to 7.4%,” CNN Money, 10/17/2012)

U.S. ECONOMIC GROWTH AT MEASLY 1.3% IN Q2 OF 2012, DOWN FROM 2.0% IN Q1: (“U.S. Economy at a Glance,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, Accessed 10/22/2012)

ECONOMIC GROWTH WAS 2.4% IN 2010, SLOWED TO 1.8% IN 2011: (“U.S. Economy at a Glance,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, Accessed 10/22/2012)

AP: CURRENT U.S. “ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS THE WEAKEST SINCE WORLD WAR II”: (Paul Wiseman, “Economic Recovery is the Weakest Since World War II,” Associated Press, 8/15/2012)

The Democrats’ response to America’s economic crisis has been to borrow money from countries like China so they can keep spending money we don’t have. Four years later, working families are still struggling, our national debt is $5.5 trillion bigger and China owns more than $1 trillion of our debt:

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 7.8%, SAME AS IT WAS WHEN OBAMA TOOK OFFICE, 10.7% IF WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION WAS THE SAME: (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 10/5/2012)

DEMOCRATS PROMISED STIMULUS WOULD BRING UNEMPLOYMENT RATE TO 5.6% BY NOW: (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09)

$5.57 TRILLION INCREASE IN NATIONAL DEBT SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” Bureau of the Public Debt, Accessed 10/22/2012)

NATIONAL DEBT CURRENTLY STANDS AT $16.20 TRILLION; SIZE OF NATION’S ECONOMY AT $15.59 TRILLION: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” Bureau of the Public Debt, Accessed 10/22/2012; Bureau of Economic Analysis, 9/27/2012) 

CHINA OWNS $1.15 TRILLION IN U.S. DEBT: (“Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, 10/16/2012)

STUDY: ANNUAL COST OF OBAMA’S DEBT AMOUNTS TO $4,000 A YEAR IN HIGHER TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS: “In a new paper, AEI’s Aspen Gorry and Matt Jensen look at the real annual cost of servicing the debt for households at various levels of income — including a potentially higher tax burden. As the table below illustrates, a household making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year could find its tax liability higher by roughly $2,400 every year. Over ten years, that works out to $24,000. And when you add in the debt already accrued the past four years under President Obama (the second table), that’s another $1,600 a year. So now we are now talking about $4,000 a year, $40,000 over ten years.” (James Pethokoukis, “Study: Obama’s Big Budget Deficits Could Mean A $4,000 A Year Middle-Class Tax Hike,” American Enterprise Institute, 10/2/12)

POLITIFACT SAID LAST YEAR THAT OBAMA WAS THE “UNDISPUTED DEBT KING OF THE LAST FIVE PRESIDENTS”: “Obama is the undisputed debt king of the last five presidents, rather than the guy who added a piddling mount to the debt.” (Louis Jacobson, “Nancy Pelosi Posts Questionable Chart on Debt Accumulation by Barack Obama, Predecessors,” Politifact, 5/19/2011) 

THREE YEARS AND TWO MONTHS OF OBAMA WAS MORE DEBT THAN EIGHT YEARS OF PREDECESSOR: “The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama’s three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.” (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased More Under Obama than Under Bush,” CBS News, 3/19/2012)

OBAMA RECORD “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT”: (Mark Knoller, “National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama,” CBS News’ Political Hotsheet Blog, 8/22/2011)

Democrats’ spending addiction is more than just a waste of money—it will hurt future economic growth. Economic studies have shown that rising debt levels are linked to less economic growth:

CBO: OBAMA BUDGET WILL “HURT THE ECONOMY IN THE LONG TERM”:  (Erik Wasson, “CBO Estimates Obama’s 2013 Budget Would Hit Economic Growth,” The Hill, 4/20/2012) 

STUDY: ECONOMIC GROWTH TAKES 25% HIT FROM DEBT LEVELS AT MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF ECONOMY:  (Rich Miller, “Reinharts, Rogoff See Huge Output Losses From High Debt,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 4/30/2012) 

GOLDMAN SACHS RESEARCH: STIMULUS SPENDING “WILL EVENTUALLY LEAD TO A DRAG,” HIGHER DEBT LEVELS TAKE ECONOMIC TOLL: “The eventual effect of sustained fiscal imbalance is slower growth and greater risk of a fiscal crisis.  Our estimates suggest that a 10-point increase in the debt/GDP ratio lowers growth four years later by 0.2 percentage point, and increases the probability of a debt crisis by 2.5% in the aftermath of a financial crisis like the recent one.  (See No Rush for the Exit,” Global Economics Paper, No. 200, June 30, 2010 and “When One Crisis Leads to Another,” US Economics Analyst, 11/04, Jan. 28, 2011.)  To avoid this, lawmakers must begin to identify deficit reduction strategies. 

“Ultimately, what goes up must come down. In the case of the federal budget, this means that a deficit-financed boost to growth will eventually lead to a drag. While policymakers can try to smooth the transition by phasing in cuts and incorporating multi-year fiscal commitments, achieving a sustainable fiscal policy will inevitably be a painful but necessary process.” (Jan Hatzius and Alec Phillips, “Fiscal Restraint: A Question of When, Not If,” Goldman Sachs Global ECS U.S. Research, 3/2/2011) 

MAJOR ECONOMIC STUDY LINKS GOVERNMENT DEBT TO SLOWER ECONOMIC GROWTH: Our main finding is that across both advanced countries and emerging markets, high debt/GDP levels (90 percent and above) are associated with notably lower growth outcomes… Seldom do countries simply ‘grow’ their way out of deep debt.” (Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Growth in a Time of Debt,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 12/31/2009)

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