Chris Cameron

Margaret Hoover vs. Bill Maher & Eliot Spitzer on the Deficit

• Eliot Spitzer: Let's be real about this. Bill Clinton had a budget *surplus*. George Bush gave us the deficit, gave us the recession, gave us the deregulatory craziness that lead us over the cliff. The Tea Party is the tail wagging the dog, it is the inmates running the asylum, it's people that don't know history, economics, politics, sociology, science. It is insane! I'm glad you said I'm an old school Democrat; I believe in science, facts, and in responsible capitalism. That's where I am.
• Margaret Hoover: Let's be honest about what really happened. Yeah, there was no deficit. You're right, when George Bush took office. And George Bush raised the deficit. Debt, spending, deficits, that happened. And then it got *doubled* in three years by Barack Obama, and so here's the reality. The Tea Party came to town -
• Bill Maher: That's not the reality.
• Spitzer: Hey can we talk about what caused the deficit. No.
• Hoover: The debt doubled.
• Maher: No.
• Spitzer: Here's what cause the deficit.
• Hoover: The debt doubled.
• Spitzer: Margaret, hold it a second.
• Maher: No it didn't.
• Spitzer: Facts...
• Hoover: And the reality is...
• Maher: No.
• Spitzer: Yeah?
• Hoover: That if the Tea Party hadn't come to town, the Senate would've had a few speeches on the floor and the debt limit would've been raised.
• Spitzer: Facts are stubborn things.
• Matthew Kibbe: We changed the conversation.
• Spitzer: Yeah, now it's insane!
• Hoover: The conversation now is about stopping spending.
• Spitzer: Now it's an insane conversation!
• Hoover: It's about your daughter's fiscal future, my fiscal future, his fiscal future.
• Maher: Did the debt double since Obama?
• Hoover: Yes.
• Spitzer: Not because of the President.
• Hoover: Are you kidding?!
• Spitzer: Here's what caused the deficit. Four factors, can you listen to this?
• Maher: The debt is 14 trillion?
• Kibbe: Yeah, 14 and a half.
• Spitzer: It's not doubled.
• Maher: And it was 7 under...?
• Hoover: Yes, it was 7.8 and we're about to go to 16.2.
• Spitzer: Hold on one second, facts are stubborn things.
• Hoover: So he's admitted that I'm right now.
• Spitzer: No. Two wars caused it, the Bush tax cut caused it.
• Hoover: The stimulus!
• Spitzer: Please, stop one minute. The recession, that the consequence of the regulatory craziness, and then the stimulus that worked. The auto industry --
• Hoover: That worked?
• Spitzer: Of course it did! The auto industry is back folks!
• Hoover: The 9.2 unemployment stimulus?
• Maher: The stimulus is seven percent of the deficit.
• Spitzer: That's right. Bill is exactly right.
• Maher: The stimulus is seven percent.
• Hoover: And the budget - look, Barack Obama's budget--
• Maher: Seven percent.
• Hoover: Barack Obama's --
• Maher: Not even double digits, and why did we need a stimulus?
• Hoover: The debt has doubled.
• Spitzer: But Margaret, you're not looking at causative factors. You're being so simplistic as to be silly.
• Hoover: No, no, no. But Eliot, let's be honest. That couldn't be more patronizing to the woman at the table.
• Spitzer: No, no. We're talking facts.
• Hoover: We're talking about numbers, actually.
• Spitzer: Yeah, we are, that's exactly right.
• Hoover: We're talking about debt that has doubled since Barack Obama's been in office. That is a number. That is a fact. We can all go Google it.
• Maher: It's not a fact, it's not the right number.
• Hoover: No, no, but it is.
• Maher: And also you count 2009, which is Bush's budget. Okay? The reason why that they had to spend some money - and again, 7% of the big problem - the reason they had to was because the last guy had drove the economy into a ditch. […] This is the problem: t he democrats get blamed by the vast majority of the American public for an ineffectual stimulus bill, and the common conventional wisdom is that that stimulus bill was spending way too much money. Actually, half of it, almost half of it was Republican tax cuts.
• Spitzer: That's actually right.
• Hoover: It was actually a third.
• Maher: It wasn't big enough.
• Hoover: It was a third more tax cuts.
• Maher: Okay, but in a 15 trillion dollar economy, or whatever it is, it was not nearly enough to do the job. So this is my problem with the Democrats: they constantly sign on to shit that isn't their idea. This is what Obama's doing now. I no longer understand this man. And I liked him, and I voted for him. I just don't understand this man anymore. When he caved on "revenues," I thought this was the line in the sand. I thought he would understand that, "You know what, my reputation is not good already as a negotiator, I've said from the beginning, I'm not going to cave, we need some revenues to fix this." When he caved on that, I mean, they own him!