Reply #86: Money Shot - Or, how shooting money down a rat hole became a Republican

[54anickel]

specialty.

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2006/edit_2006-03-23.cfm

Two great mysteries lie at the core of the current presidential administration. The first is how Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld manages to keep his job given repeated blunders in the Iraq war. The second is how on earth President George W. Bush manages to pass himself off as the man of Republican principles he most certainly is not.

Just look at our nation’s finances. If you’re old enough to remember the Reagan administration, you’re old enough remember Republicans whining and moaning about Democratic profligacy, the party of “tax and spend.” A big load it was, too.

Here are the facts, folks, as laid out for us by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office: When he left office in 1989, President Reagan left us with a federal budget deficit just shy of $200 billion. When President George H. Bush left office in 1992, he gifted us with a budget deficit of $290.3 billion. When President Clinton left office he left us with a budget surplus of $236.2 billion. Let’s dwell on that one word for a while—surplus.

What thanks did the American public have for this most unusual legacy? We focused instead on the fact that he lied about cheating on his wife, treating it as some sort of national-security issue in hearing after hearing while Al-Qaeda hatched its heinous plots. Politicians just love a good diversionary tactic, and sexual morality tops the list.

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