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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion
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To: cirrus who wrote (3275)10/20/2006 5:43:42 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 10087
 
Clinton had things go in his favor - but Bush also entered office with some nice things going for him - government spending and taxes roughly in balance.

Its not unreasonable to argue that Bush has been less fiscally disciplined than Clinton, but if Bush had become president when Clinton had become president, and Clinton had become president after Bush, its likely that Clinton's deficits would be larger, and Bush's smaller.

The main wild card in that is congress. In terms of deficits Clinton benefited from opposition to Clinton. That opposition helped create a Republican congress that really cared about spending restraint. But with losing the "shut down the government" battle, and with Republicans getting used to the perks of power, congress is much less concerned about controlling spending, and is indeed rather spendthrift.

and then claimed the tax cut wasn't responsible for the resulting huge deficits.

If "not responsible for the deficits" means "didn't contribute to the fact that the deficits increased" than I agree the claim was inaccurate. OTOH its reasonable to consider the increased spending the real reason for the deficit increase.

The theory that the Bush tax cuts helped revive the economy is suspect.

Even if something else did more that doesn't mean the tax cuts did not help to revive the economy.

If one had to choose the more fiscally responsible President... it's hard to choose Bush over Clinton.

I don't have a problem with your considering Clinton to be more fiscally responsible than Bush. I just think Bush isn't as fiscally irresponsible as he is sometimes painted and Clinton wasn't as fiscally responsible as some of his supporters claim.
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