Then and now: Barack Obama calls President Bush “unpatriotic” for adding $4 trillion to the national debt
While defending the recent raising of the debt ceiling while the debate was still ongoing, White House Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, claimed that the Republicans were “playing chicken with the debt ceiling,” and claimed that the failure to raise the debt ceiling would bring on a financial crisis, Chuck Schumer claimed the Republicans “held a gun to our heads,” while other Democrats claimed that the Tea Party was holding the debt ceiling hostage. And Joe Biden famously stated according to people present that the Democrats had to negotiate with terrorists over the debt ceiling–he was talking about the Tea Party of course. If there was any doubt about it before the debt ceiling debate, there was no doubt after the debate; the new era of civility and the toning down of the violent rhetoric and vitriol was dead at the hands of the very party that clamored for it in the wake of the Arizona shooting.
Barack Obama himself claimed that it would be irresponsible for the Congress not to raise the debt ceiling and called on the Congress to let him increase his borrowing. Of course Barack Obama did not always hold the same position because back in 2006, as a member of the Senate, Barack Obama had a very different opinion on what raising the debt ceiling meant:
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
In 2006 Barack Obama claimed that even having a debate over raising the debt ceiling was a sign of failed leadership, but as president he claimed that it would be irresponsible not to. He voted against rasing the debt ceiling in 2006 and his hypocrisy was completed when he asked for his own increase in the debt ceiling.
But today new video evidence of Barack Obama’s duplicity and hypocrisy came to light because during the campaign trail while he was running for president he actually called President Bush unpatriotic for raising the debt ceiling:
The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child.
That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.
So, when President Bush took eight years to increase the national debt by $4 trillion–and I am not defending this, by the way–Barack Obama railed against this mortgaging of our children’s future to the banks of China as irresponsible and unpatriotic, yet when in less than half of the time he himself asked to raise the debt ceiling by the same amount he said it would be irresponsible not to do so. He did not mention the fact that his failed policies mortgaged the future of our children to China’s banks, and he did not mention that this put us even further in debt than President Bush had.
And I thought that once upon a time the left told us it was not okay to question a person’s patriotism. While George Bush was president, and while the anti-war sentiment became quite prevalent, some on the right started to question the patriotism of those on the left who opposed the wars. We were quickly told that this was off limits; we were told that you cannot question a person’s patriotism simply because you disagree with a person’s opinion on an issue. John Kerry once quipped, “how dare you challenge my patriotism.”
Yet here is Barack Obama on the campaign trail doing just that; he questioned George Bush’s patriotism for increasing the national debt by $4 trillion and selling us out to the Chinese, and yet he has done the very same in half the time. Is it any wonder that Barack Obama has lost all credibility and is it any wonder that nobody takes him seriously any more?
America's Watchtower 
Crow must be one of Obama’s favorite dishes. He sure does eat a lot of it. Political rhetoric has a way of coming back and biting one in the butt.
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What goes around, comes around, as they say! I have just never been able to figure out who “they” are.
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they are reading your posts.
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mmmmm, crow! The man simply will say whatever he thinks will be to his political gain and this is just the latest example.
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Come on, Steve. You said:
” Barack Obama himself claimed that it would be irresponsible for the Congress not to raise the debt ceiling and called on the Congress to let him increase his borrowing. ”
The strong implication is that the President is just on a borrowing binge; the fact is that the government must meet its obligations – obligations legislated by Congress – and borrows to raise the cash to pay the bills.
You are suggesting that the President asked for a credit limit increase on the national Visa card so he could run out and charge things willy-nilly. You’re usually much more responsible in your posts.
Take good care and may God bless us all!
TGY
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The truth is that most politics are hypocrits. I used to think Obama was different; that he wouldn’t resort to such bullshit. This just shows how desperate politicians can get.
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Don’t count them all out, we have to believe that some are good, don’t we? By the way, thank you for your service to our country.
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Obama, like most other politicians will say whatever they feel it takes to get them elected. He promised to change the way Washington did business, but it is business as usual.
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As bad as Bush was when it came to spending Barack Obama has been worse, that is the point I was trying to make in addition to the hypocrisy of his position in 2008 and present. There can be no denying that Obama’s policies have pushed us further into debt and forced us to borrow even more money from the Chinese, and this was something that he called unpatriotic before he became president.
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Well said. Desperate politicians in action. Although I don’t understand what Obama questioning Bush’s patriotism has to do with John Kerry’s remark. Granted they’re both Democrats but they are two different people.
Obama’s policies may be in question, but I’ve always admired his morales. In other words, I don’t think him calling Bush unpatriotic makes him a hypocrit.
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I was trying to point out the reaction of the left when people on the right were questioning their patriotism. They reacted angrily and I thought that Kerry’s statement was a good example, yet Obama had no problem questioning George Bush’s patriotism when he felt he could gain political points by doing so.
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Candidates for the next election always get desperate. And you’r right, it’s hypocritical to react such a way to someone questioning your patriotism, when you have done the same. I was dissapointed when I read your article. I always thought Obama was a little better than that – apparently I was wrong. I just find it silly how with politics EVERYTHING is lumped into two categories: left or right, Bush or Obama, conservative or liberal. No one takes conservative democrats seriously. Your either red or blue, and if you choose neither, than your branded an anarchist. If your elected official says something you disagree with, you may as well have said it yourself.
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Barack Obama’s whole political career was built on destroying others. His operatives took out all his Democrat primary opponents using dirty tricks and smear campaigns so that he could run unopposed. He came from one of the areas which is known for dirty politics and it isn’t surprising to me that he has continued this type of game.
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This is typical of Obama. Say one thing but mean another Steve. How much evidence do we need to show before people finally wake up and realize this guy campaigned as something he was not?
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I think that most people are waking up to the fact that Obama was a fraud, currently it seems as if the only people who are supporting him are the Democrat base which will never abandon him.
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Funny that Obama bashes Bush for lining China’s pockets (which he did), while he himself actually invited Hu Jin Tao to the White House and handed him thousands of American jobs.
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A great point, but what do you think would happen if we questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism over this?
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Whoever found this video should win some sort of prize. What an ad it will make next year. Unpatriotic. Pathetic.
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It would make a great political add, I hope the Republican nominee uses it against him in the general election.
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Well, you see, it is different. Obama took Bush’s last budget deficit, and tripled it in one year. Bush’s deficits were “unpatriotic” because they we so much smaller than what Obama wanted.
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During the Bush years, when the deficit was created through wasteful tax cuts, unfunded expenditures, and two wars, the Republicans raised the debt ceiling 14 times while Democrats like Obama railed against it. Before you call Obama a hypocrite, you must try to remember three things: (1) that was a period when deficit was going up, not down. (2) Bush was increasing expenditures and ignoring the Democrats, while today Obama was actively engaged in hammering out further deficit and spending reductions, but Republicans are rebuffing him. (3) The Democrats under Bush were pissed, but they didn’t use the debt ceiling as an extortion. The only time that was ever done was 2012, by the Republicans, which lowered our credit rating, and now they want to do it again.
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