A trillion in new taxes only on 'the wealthiest'?

JohnnyM,
I agree completely with you about Bush. In 2001, if he had taken the 600 checks to everyone and put that towards paying down our debt it would have been a much better move.
So long as we have debt, it doesn't matter if we are running at a 'surplus.' We aren't going to be in good shape until we pay down our debt and solve our ongoing deficit issues.
 
I don't necessarily agree that Clinton "spent the surpluses on who knows what". If he did that, there wouldn't be a surplus.

Clinton (and his Congress) created the surpluses, but didn't use them to reduce the debt. I am not sure and don't remember if Clinton ever said "we have a surplus so we are going to start (new program here)". Clinton gets the credit for the surplus but demerits for not using it correctly.

On the other hand, Bush specifically said he was returning the surplus to the taxpayer, didn't use any to reduce the debt, and then presided over large increases in the deficit. Those were all bad.

I'm not saying Clinton did it all right, but you've got to at least acknowledge that he and his Congress DID manage to reduce the size of the deficit, which you cannot say about Bush.
 
Are you being serious? What is warped about my reasoning? I blame Bush more than Clinton for two reasons:

1. Clinton worked with his Congress to reduce the deficit
2. Bush refunded his "surplus" using the logic that we "over-collected"

I think Clinton and his Congress were wrong to not use any "surplus" to reduce the debt and I've said that before. Realistically though, there was not much of a surplus anyway - but that doesn't mean it was all for naught. They still reduced the deficit - something Bush cannot say. Clinton (and the GOP-led Congress) get moderate kudos for that - that was ALL I was trying to say.

Bush gets no kudos because he:

1. Refunded a surplus that likely wasn't there
2. Didn't use any surplus, if there was any, to reduce the debt
3. Worked with his Congress to increase the deficit greatly

In reply to:
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It was ridiculously stupid from a fiscal responsibility point of view. But it makes perfect sense given the current political machine. Career politicians use public funds to purchase private votes. Why is a tax refund any worse than a government program funded with borrowed dollars? Why do you single out Bush? Every President in my lifetime has failed in this respect not only Bush including Clinton.

In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
My opinion and facts never changed. I just expected you to stay consistent within your own fantasy world where surpluses actually existed. Glad to see you finally acknowledge they never did.
 
Nice job taking one fragment out of context. My point was never that the government actually ended the fiscal year with a surplus.

Now please explain your statement above that Clinton "created surpluses"?

In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
TG - Obama and the Dems have done a piss-poor job with the budget and you won't see me say otherwise. The comment was not about Obama or how Obama compares to Bush. The comment was about Bush and how he fared considering 9/11.

I think Bush, even considering 9/11, did an atrocious job with the budget. To say his job was "amazing" is ludicrous. Further, if you think THAT was an "amazing" job considering a mere $1T hit to the economy, I can't see how you would think Obama has done much worse considering the economic hit that he faced. If you think they both sucked, I'm on board with you - but to say Bush did an "amazing" job if you think Obama's job has been terrible is pretty comical.
 
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