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Is the budget deficit the only measure? They all increased spending, not what a fiscal conservative should do. Two of them increased taxes, though Clinton at least cut the capital gains tax.
Let’s look at in reality now:
Reagan: War President
Bush Sr: War President
Clinton: Peace President
Bush Jr. War President
Conclusion?
Peace = Prosperity
War = No Prosperity
Its not anything with conservatism. It is everything with war or peace.
Cursor_
What interests me is that the Clinton “surplus” EVAPORATED literally the day that Bush took office….
Doesn’t that tell you something?
Smoke and mirrors….
Excellent illustration Uncle Dave!! Amazing how well a simple diagram can get volumes of points across.
Cursor_,
You seem to be missing the point.
Conclusion: Republicans cause wars!
Think W just got caught in bad circumstances? Then how was The Onion, a humorous paper, able to nail this so perfectly before 9/11 even happened?
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784
It’s no accident.
#2
Reagan was not a war time president.
Unless you consider the invasion of grenada a “War”
Bush senior was in power for 8 years and the The First Gulf war lasted 8 Months not 8 years. So again not really a war time president.
Then there was the little operation Just Cause. But that was over a weekend and I was home in time for New Years Eve Parties.
So two of your three fiscal conservatives were not war time presidents as much as fox news might want to make them out as war leaders they were not.
Now onto our Bush Junior, He is a war time president but instead of raising taxing to cover the costs of the war he has decided to borrow money from china to pay for no bid contracts from Companies that he and his friends own and operate.
Not really a conservative fiscal policy. If the war is worth fighting it is worth asking americans and american companies to make sacrifices in the way of lower profit bids for the war effort, higher taxes to fund our security and a draft to ease the burden on the heroes that volunteered. A real conservative patriot would know these things.
Time to throw the BS flag. Clinton said there would be a surplus, but it was all in the future, and would never be realized as a) it depended on succeeding years budgets, and b) it went beyond his last term.
He rooked the books and painted a rosy picture. Everyone bought it.
I like the simplicity of the message.
The REAL PROBLEM is most Americans don’t know or care that Republicans are borrow and spend. To most, the national credit card is a bottomless source of free money.
A the economic bounty of the cliton era paid for the bush tax cuts to the ultra wealthy.
#5 If you don’t think the Cold War was both expensive and a war you are an idiot.
Figures don’t lie but liars can figure…we will all be paying. The Clinton “surplus” was achieved, on paper, by taking money from the Social Security trust fund.
http://www.nber.org/feldstein/wj020199.html
It always amazes me that one man (i.e. the president) gets all of the credit and all of the blame for everything, particularly business and economic cycles. Does nobody think that maybe the economy, which is tied into the global economy, might be bigger than one man? What about congress? Are they just an unneccessary trifle? Notice that congress, despite Bush’s bad ratings, is rated far worse by the american public. Nobody in congress is really doing anything meaningful about the big issues, besides heat up the air in D.C. Gee, seems like we had plenty of surplus money to hand out ‘stimulus’ checks. Ridiculous.
A surplus is a surplus. Yeah they didn’t expect it for another 5 years, and spent more than even that budget called for. Nevertheless the tax money came in even higher than that, and unexpected, because liberals don’t understand that cutting capital gains taxes can be a good thing.
Wait #5….Bush Sr. was in power for 8 years? Did I lose 4 years there somewhere?
Then, later in #8 you said A the economic bounty of the cliton era paid for the bush tax cuts to the ultra wealthy.
I’m trying to figure out how I got to be “ultra wealthy”. Hell, my wife and I combined qualified for EIC that year…and we got a check from these “tax cuts for the ultra wealthy”. I had no idea that a family making 50k a year qualified as that rich. I should have put in at the local country club back before I started making even more money than that.
on the capital gains thing I don’t think you have an understanding of the issue.
you are charged capital gains taxes when you take money out of the market and realize a profit.
when repubs lower capital gains people take a bunch of money out of the market to capitalize on the temporary low rate.
so while the revenue taken in is temporarily increased when the repubs lower cap gains taxes, the economy is actually hurt, because the lower taxes encourage people to take their money out of the market.
Higher capital gains taxes will temporarily lower the amount of people cashing out of the market, but it’s actually a healthy measure to keep money in the market.
#10 – Stars & Bars,
Not one dime has ever been removed from the social security fund. You’re believing lies put forth by wealthy individuals who want to kill Soc. Sec. because corporations have to match our contributions.
#15 – James Hill,
Meanwhile, liberalism has been dead in the water for thirty years.
Sad but true.
I want this on a tee shirt. I would wear it daily no matter the stench.
Stars and Bars, give it up already. That’s no Clinton’s scam. It’s been long-running. Clinton had an overall better economy and budget picture even if you take Social Security ‘off-budget’
#19 – S&B,
Sure would be nice if the authors of that right wing total BS would provide some footnotes so that someone could check on their data. As it is, it seems that they are somewhat less reliable than a blog. Further, that final line, “It takes Democratic leadership to actually steal our wages and give them to Wall Street” describes Reagan’s gush up economics. Though, I admit that even the Dems have gotten on board with it.
However, it’s still Reagan’s voodoo economics, as Papa Bush called it when he debated Reagan and then later adopted it himself. The fact is that there have not been any liberal presidents in many years.
Clinton was simply the least bad we’ve had, which makes him the best by default, not by being actively good. He too took part in the right shifting and deregulation of the country. He just did it a bit more slowly, probably because he was too busy selling arms.
That said, SSA still has two terabucks and is in good shape, unless the repugnicans or the democrap/repug wannabes get their grubby little paws on it and privatize it into oblivion. For now though, it’s all still there.
#14, Capital gains isn’t just about stocks. It is all investment vehicles, including savings accounts. You talk about people cashing in a temporary low rate, but these rates weren’t there for just one year, and having these lower rates encourages more people to invest so that they can take advantage of this low rate.
Clinton: Peace President?????
lol
This comparison is a bit misleading since under Carter and Clinton the nation’s defenses were literally gutted. Carter chose humiliation over the nation’s honor as did Clinton, just in a different way.
The result is that their successors were forced to spend in order to rebuild the nations defenses.
#24 – Dr. Dodd,
Speaking of humiliation … do you honestly think this nation has ever had as humiliating an appearance as it does right now? Do you think there has ever been a president as humiliating as W? Under Clinton, I think we looked quite good internationally. One need not be an international bully to look strong.
#23 – Piece o’ass president. As opposed to our current POS president.
[Har! – ed.]
Sure, the question is bigger than the cartoon suggests, but at the end of the day, when your hard drive is full, you generally look for things to toss out, to make room. Republicans appear to start filling up their grandchildren’s hard drives, instead. And never, ever, clean house.
Conservatives? Of what?
The budget? No.
Lives? No.
Treasure? No.
The environment? No.
Diplomatic camaraderie? No.
Reputation as a shining example the world should emulate? No.
When the Democrats are the party that is accused of being the tax and spend Liberals, but actually improve the status, comfort level, environmental considerations and treasure of the country, they have earned the right to be called the real conserving party.
Way to be off on your facts Scott. If your source is Paul Krugman, take a loot at what he was saying when Clinton was proposing Social Security reform.
SS doesn’t have any money, just accounting numbers with the government saying it owns this much money. Even those numbers are set to go bankrupt, and ‘privatization’ is one way of solving the problem. As it is, the surplus for social security is shrinking, which means the budget problems have already started.
#28 – MikeN,
Hmm… Wish my own coffers were so empty that I had two terabucks of treasuries in them. Wall St. considers those risk free. I don’t. However, when they become worthless, so will the paper in your pocket.
#25 MS
Bush is guilty of making the one fatal mistake a President can’t afford to make.
To his credit, he has the courage to defend the country when necessary, but hasn’t got the balls or know-how to do what it takes to win.
Dragging it out is not a winning strategy. That I find humiliating and even embarrassing no matter who the president.
Clinton was a tourist president. He was there not to serve, but to be served.
Yep, Borrow and Spend Republicans because it’s all funny money. Who gives a shit there’s a $480 billion interest on the debt just for 2008. We’ll just put that on the other credit card and issue more paper IOU’s to the social security fund.
This is the biggest Republican created bubble that has not yet burst.
Please direct me to this vault filled with treasuries.
It is an accounting gimmick. Social Security benefits are paid for by the revenue taken in each year.
According to Social Security accounting, the benefits being paid go up each year, overtaking its own revenues in 2011. But that’s OK, your precious ‘coffers’ supposedly don’t deplete till 2042.