a good part of the deficit under his administration is from debt incurred by former administration and problems (unpaid wars, economic meltdown) started under former administrations. It would have been nice (and fiscally responsible) if Bush said we have to raise taxes to pay for these wars. Instead he lowered taxes and increased spending which was a double whammy
Reducing spending is the key to deficit reduction but the revenue side is an indispensible part of the equation
The revenue part of the equation is a non starter Straw. DOing what Obama wants will only get you $700 billion over the next 10 years. Our debt is on course to increase to 21 trillion in 10 years. If you count Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, it is more like $30 trillion. Even if you do the intellectually honest thing and repeal everybody's tax cuts, that will only get you $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years. And that is from static analysis which assumes that these tax increases will have no negative effect on economic growth.
