Steve Moore
9/29/2010

Blame Congress, not presidents Bush or Obama, for our perilous fiscal situation, says Moore. A strong case can be made that the people most responsible for the gigantic deficits we face today are the House and Senate Majority Leaders Pelosi and Reid. Congress controls the purse strings. When Pelosi and Reid rose to their present jobs in January 2007, the deficit was $161 billion. It had been on a downward trajectory from $413 billion in 2004. Three years later, the Pelosi-Reid Congress had added $1.2 trillion to the deficit. Of course, Bush sponsored or signed many of these deficit-raising bills, such as the bank bailouts and effective tax rebates of 2008. But the Democratic Congress passed them.

Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Link to full text in primary source.