A white man asked his black friend, ‘Are you voting for Barack Obama just because he’s black?’

The black man responded by saying, 'Why not? Hell, in this country men are pulled over everyday just because they’re black; passed over for promotions just because they’re black; considered to be criminals just because they’re black; and there are going to be thousands of you who won’t be voting for him just because he’s black!

However, you do not seem to have a problem with that! This country was built with the sweat and whip off the black slaves’ back, and now a black man of African descent has a chance to lead the same country, where we weren’t even considered to be people, where we weren’t allowed to be educated, drink from the same water fountains, eat in the same restaurants, or even vote.

So yes! I’m going to vote for him! But it’s not just because he’s black, but because he is hope, he is change, and he now allows me to understand when my grandson says that he wants to be president when he grows up, it is not a fairy tale but a short-term goal. He now sees, understands and knows that he can achieve, withstand and do ANYTHING just because he’s black.

Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph

What’s also important, but not evident, on this chart is that Obama’s major expenses were temporary — the stimulus is over now — while Bush’s were, effectively, recurring. The Bush tax cuts didn’t just lower revenue for 10 years. It’s clear now that they lowered it indefinitely, which means this chart is understating their true cost. Similarly, the Medicare drug benefit is costing money on perpetuity, not just for two or three years. And Boehner, Ryan and others voted for these laws and, in some cases, helped to craft and pass them.

To relate this specifically to the debt-ceiling debate, we’re not raising the debt ceiling because of the new policies passed in the past two years. We’re raising the debt ceiling because of the accumulated effect of policies passed in recent decades, many of them under Republicans. It’s convenient for whichever side isn’t in power, or wasn’t recently in power, to blame the debt ceiling on the other party. But it isn’t true.