The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Worse Than France

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Liberals accuse conservatives of being alarmist when we talk about America evolving into a socialist welfare state, but judging by at least one measure --debt as a percentage of GDP -- we're well on our way. If the Obama budget gets enacted, our debt will surge to 82.4 percent of the economy by 2019, according to CBO projections. To put that in context, that would make us far worse than where Canada (62.3 percent), Germany (62.6 percent) and France (67 percent) are today, according to the CIA World Fact Book. In fact, it would place us 11th in the world, between Bhutan* (81.4 percent) and Egypt (84.7 percent).

* The Bhutan figure is somewhat misleading, because India finances nearly three-fifths of Bhutan's spending. India ranks 14th on the debt/GDP list, at 78 percent.

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Bob| 3.31.09 @ 3:09PM

Philip -- not to say this isn't a problem, but you need to put it in context. First of all, the highest debt to GDP ratio was during WWII when it was 109% -- far higher than the 82% you stated. Furthermore, you are comparing the PROJECTED ratio by 2019 for the U.S. to the current ratios of the countries you mentioned. Their numbers will be significantly higher in 2019 as well. Therefore, your comparisons are misleading.

In addition, you talk about evolving into a "socialist welfare state" (an alarmist/Chicken Little statement) without actually pointing to the fact that this projection assumes NO changes in Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. The vast majority of this increase is simply people living longer and a lower percentage of young people. Thus, your conclusion is quite misleading.

The only way to prevent this from occurring is through a significant change in entitlement programs. Whenever you make a statement like this, you need to tell people the truth.

I believe the high debt created by Reagan, Bush, AND Obama are all immoral because it hurts our children and grandchildren. This is not a party specific problem. Here is a chart by the Heritage Foundation showing the huge effects of entitlement spending:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/features/budgetchartbook/fed-rev-spend-2008-boc-P1-Entitlement-Spending-Will-More.html

Let's try to tell people the WHOLE truth and not make misleading statements like "worse than France" when you are comparing apples and oranges.