Emanuel: Blame Bush Administration For National Debt And State Of Afghan War

[cal04]

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/emanuel-blame-bush-administration-for-national-debt-and-state-of-afghan-war.php?ref=fpb

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel appeared on CNN's State of the Union this morning, and tried to lay at least a couple of the country's current problems at the feet of the Bush administration.

On the record $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit, Emanuel chastised Republicans for abandoning the pay-as-you-go "discipline of the 90s" while passing three tax cuts and a massive prescription drug bill. "That led to $5 trillion of red ink run up -- the biggest red ink run up in the shortest period of time in American history," Emanuel said. "Literally over half the nation's debt has accumulated in the last eight years."

Emanuel also seemed to criticize the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Afghanistan, saying that many of the questions of strategy and policy that President Obama is now asking are being asked for the first time.

"Before it never even got on the radar screen for them," Emanuel said. "Everything was always about Iraq."

[HamdenRice]

1. Rahm would do well to serve as the administration pit bull nt

[cutlassmama]

2. Rahm is correct. nt