This Date in Bush History 12/28: A Striking Difference from the Clinton Years

[BlueButGlad2]

On This Date in Bush History 12/27: A Striking Difference

"We understand where the power of this country lay. ... It must lay in our pocketbooks." President Bush, April 11th 2001

"If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the Philosophers Stone." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1736

2000:Today President Clinton announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects that the US is on course to eliminate its public debt within the next decade and to pay down $237 billion in debt in 2001 alone, bringing the four-year debt reduction to $600 billion; the largest four-year debt pay-down in history. Over the previous three years, $363 billion in debt has been paid down.

With a strong economy and a commitment to fiscal discipline, federal finances have improved for an unprecedented nine consecutive years. If the country were to dedicate the entire budget surplus to debt reduction, it is projected that the U.S. could eliminate publicly held debt by fiscal year 2009. A deficit of $290 billion in fiscal year 1992 is now projected to be a surplus of $256 billion in fiscal year 2001. Record deficits have become record surpluses.

With the election of President Bush, this stunning progress came to a dramatic halt. The goal of an America free of debt, thought to be obtainable by 2010, soon seemed more out of reach than ever, due to President Bush’s selfishly combining significant tax cuts for the wealthy with huge spending increases. Such actions can make one more popular while in office, but the debt and the associated interest owed on that debt is passed on to future generations. Bush's 'gift' to the nation's kids is out-of-control spending combined with out-of-control borrowing; a potentially crippling combination. The right thing is to step up and pay one's own bills, instead of passing them on to our kids. Buying popularity by foisting billions of dollars of debt onto the backs of future generations is wrong. Both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on that.

"I think we agree, the past is over." Candidate George W. Bush, May 2000

Excerpted from the 2008 Bush Calendar: http://www.PoorGeorgesAlmanac.com/onThisDate.htm THE GOOD-BYE TOUR! (final week of these posts)

[ixion]

1. In 2000, the economy was kickin', people were employed, and there were no major conflagrations

posse comitatus was still in tact, as was habeas corpus.


my what a difference a few years and a group of neocons make. :(