I'm going to try to kill two birds with one stone here, so this is a reply to both Squid and Hylander.
Bush is on target to increase the deficit 1.2 Trillion dollars in three years, while Clinton did the same in eight years. How is that better?Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Hylander
Where is it written that the barometer of a strong economy is debt and deficits as a percentage of GDP?Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Hylander
I prefer to use more practical measurements that actually matter to real people. Between 1992 and 2000, in only eight years, the Clinton economy had created a record 22 million jobs, real income for median families rose twice as fast in his eight years as the prior twelve, 7.7 million escaped poverty, and deficits had turned into surpluses for the first time in twenty-four years. That sounds like a pretty good record to me. What's Bush done in his four years using these measures as a yardstick?
That's what I have to say about the economy. Now, on to the deficit.
A balanced budget is necessary to prevent deficit spending, whether or not it makes you feel any better. It's as simple as that.Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Squidly
So what are you saying? That Clinton never actually created an annual budget surplus and Bush doesn't actually have us in the red to the tune of $400 billion per year? Was the Clinton economy and budget simply accounting tricks and fiction?Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Hylander
It sounds to me like you're saying that we didn't actually have a strong economy under Clinton, while it's just fine now and that Clinton's surplus was fictitious and Bush's deficit spending either doesn't exist or doesn't matter.
Who are you blaming for entitlement programs? What's your solution? The Democrats were planning to use the budget surplus to repair Social Security and Medicare entitlements. Now that Bush has us awash in red ink, that idea has pretty much gone out the window.
Nobel Economic Laureate Robert Solow has described the situation as, "There has been a dissipation of the huge budget surplus, and all we have to show for that is the city of Baghdad."