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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (103266)	2/5/2009 8:37:59 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542054

<<< Its pretty much impossible to do a good job at balancing spending and revenue when you increase spending by about 50% during your administration.>>> Isn't the principles of balancing the budget the same with managing a budget of the United States as it is with managing your household budget. You have to balance the spending with the amount of money you bring in. How could you ignore the fact that he increased spending along side enacting the largest tax cuts in the history of the country. Whatever the theoretical merits of tax cuts, how could he enact such tax cuts at the time he did. Tax cuts at the time was like diverting income (don't give me that raise) at a time you are running huge budget deficits (at home) into the hands of a rich uncle (boss) so that he can take that money and invest it to grow the company such that he may possibly employ your grandchildren in the future. I know you will not accept my analogy. But that is okay. At least I got to express my displeasure with that bit of Bush behavior.

To: TimF who wrote (103266)	2/6/2009 3:55:38 AM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542054

>>Its not really an issue for opinion. It hard and fast facts. The budgets are matters of public record. Last budget submitted by Clinton. $1.9 trillion total spending. $292.3 billion defense spending. Last budget submitted by Bush $3.1 tril, defense spending $515.4 billion, suplmental "War on Terror" spending $145.2 billion. Total defense $660.6 Increase in defense spending $368bil Increase in total spending $1200 bil So increase in non defense spending is $832 bil<< Tim - So by those figures, defense spending increased by a more than 120%, and non-defense spending increased by roughly 50%. Meanwhile, despite what was characterized as a national defense emergency, taxes were being cut. I don't know. To me, it really does seem that both the tax cuts and the military spending increases are fair targets for criticism, and to a greater extent than the non-defense spending increase is. Given that Bush and his Republican-controlled Congresses (throughout most of the period) were fully aware of the increases in spending, I'd say it was damned irresponsible of them to cut taxes the way they did. But I can see how others might view this differently. - Allen