DEBT PER GDP

1960-2007 average (pre-Obama): 36.2%.

1960-2000 average (pre-Bush): 36.2%

2001-2007 average (Bush, pre-recession): 36.0%

Bush’s average level of debt was a hair below average, at least up until the beginning of this recent recession. At the end of 2007 it stood at 36.8% of GDP, pretty much where it had been for the previous several decades.

If you want to get really picky, Bush inherited a debt of 35.1% of GDP from Bill Clinton in 2000, and left Obama a debt of 40.8% of GDP in 2008 (per the CBO). There you have it — the smoking gun! An extra 5.7% of GDP in federal debt held by the public. But most of that came in 2008, a full year of recession.

In fact, Bush fought two recessions: one started almost the minute he was sworn into office in 2001, and a second started at the end of 2007, one full year after Democrats took over both houses of Congress. So to be a good Keynesian, Bush should have spent like a drunken sailor in at least two of his eight years in office. (Ironically, Bush actually ran a surplus in 2001, the year of the recession he inherited, one of the shortest and shallowest recessions in history. That would make it a Keynesian-defying event, a virtual miracle.)

As it was, the deficit was $459 B in 2008, the largest in history up to that point in nominal dollars.

Now here is where it gets fun: Obama steps in. The very first year under Obama, 2009, the deficit is expected to be about $1.84 trillion.

Here are some fun facts regarding Obama’s budgets from 2009 through 2019.

• Obama’s first-year deficit, the largest in history, is over four times bigger than George Bush’s last deficit, which had been the largest in history up to then.
• Obama’s first-year deficit is more than Bush’s first seven deficits combined.
• The smallest deficit predicted under Obama’s budget from 2009 through 2019 is $658 B, or 43% bigger than Bush’s largest deficit, the largest in history up to then.
• Under Obama’s budget, deficits exceeding one trillion dollars will occur in four years: 2009, 2010, 2018 and 2019.
• The 10-year cumulative deficit (2010-2019) under Obama’s budget will be $9.3 trillion, or an average of almost one trillion per year, more than doubling what it would have been under the laws left by Bush.
• The debt held by the public in 2008, or that left by Bush for Obama, was 40.8% of GDP. In just one year under Obama, after 2009, it will be 56.8%, or the largest since 1955. By 2019 it will be 82.5%, the largest in our history except for the three years of 1945-47, the end of World War II.
• From 2000 to 2008, or the Bush years, the debt held by the public went from 35.1% of GDP to 40.8% — a 5.7% of GDP increase. By 2016, or a similar period under Obama’s budgets, it is expected to reach 77.5% — a 36.7% of GDP increase.
• Under Obama’s budget, the debt held by the public will reach 82.4% of GDP in 2019. That is more than double the average level since 1960 and more than double what Bush left in 2008. (Recall that “since 1960″ includes Nixon, Ford, Reagan and both Bushes.)

Contrast any of these fun facts about Obama to similar facts about Bush. Bush kept debt fairly steady and near the post-1960 average. The debt barely increased at all in his first seven years. Only in his last year, the first year of this recession, did it go up much, and not all that much even then.

Proponents of legislation to legalize medical use of marijuana in New York were encouraged Monday by the announcement of a shift in federal policy first promised by President Barack Obama in his presidential campaign.

The U.S. Department of Justice Monday advised U.S. attorneys not to target medical marijuana use and distribution in the 13 states where it is legal. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has previously raided such dispensaries.

The new federal policy “greatly helps, and certainly it puts state medical marijuana laws on a much firmer footing legally,” said Assemb. Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), who sponsored legislation that passed the Assembly in 2007 and 2008 but failed in the State Senate.

He and state Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan) are now sponsoring identical bills that would legalize production and distribution of medical marijuana through tightly regulated licensed health care facilities and providers.

“Our standard in New York is even stricter than what the federal government is appearing to allow the states to do,” said Duane.

The two said they’re hoping the measures could see action before the end of the year if the legislature is called into special session to deal with the state budget.

Marijuana helps control nausea, vomiting, wasting and anxiety from AIDs, cancer and chemotherapy treatments, and can also help with pain and other symptoms of debilitating diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Medical associations including the Medical Society of the state of New York and the New York State Nurses Association support legalizing the drug for medical use.

Marijuana “certainly has its place and should be among the drugs we’re allowed to use,” said Dr. Reed Phillips of Glen Cove, who recently retired as a practicing oncologist and palliative care specialist. He said other drugs also help control nausea and anxiety, but marijuana has the advantage because “it’s probably a heck of a lot cheaper than the best anti-nausea medications that can cost $20 to $50 a pill.”

Catherine Hart, chief operating officer of the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, Inc., said she’d support legal physician-prescribed marijuana use, but cautioned that many patients have substance abuse issues that would need to be fully disclosed.

A pill with marijuana’s active ingredient is available legally now, but it can take an hour to take effect compared to five to 15 minutes for inhaled or vaporized marijuana.

Bruce Mirkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest marijuana reform organization, applauded the federal policy shift and said it should remove fears cited by state legislative opponents that constituents would be put at legal risk.