This week, I’ve been writing a lot about budget numbers. While I’ve given a hard time to President Obama — deservedly so — it’s also important to remember the fiscal recklessness of George W. Bush, whose financial mismanagement continues to haunt us.
Below, I’ve put together a chart showing the growth in spending on Bush’s Medicare prescription drug plan, known as Part D, over the decade, based on data from the most recent Medicare Trustees’ Report. Over the 10 year period from 2010 to 2019, the trustees project the program will cost the federal government $763 billion, which I’ve demonstrated in the chart below. But keep in mind that the years we’re talking about in the context of Obama’s latest budget are 2012 through 2021. Given that the program gets more expensive over time, it would probably cost about $900 billion in the comparable years.
We’ve been talking a lot about the need to reform entitlements to get the debt problem under control. Well, had Bush era Republicans simply done nothing about them, we’d be a lot better off right now.
