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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (44007)	7/14/2010 3:48:01 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

Your point A is true, and relevant, but a smaller factor than the points I listed. Clinton was almost perfectly set up to have surpluses, certainly more so than any other recent president. No other president in my lifetime had a congress that was so concerned about controlling spending and deficits. No other president had the combination of taking over just after a recession ended, and strong growth, with a stock boom/bubble, that didn't blow up until after they left. With the possible exception of Bush I, no other modern president had the ability to reasonably safely shrink the size of the military, because of a large reduction in the threat we faced, combined with inheriting a lot of new equipment from Reagan's buildup. Clinton should have done more with the opportunity he had. If he's graded in absolute terms on his performance for the situation he doesn't do so well (OTOH he does do well in relative terms, since the other recent presidents did worse, even after adjusting for the circumstances, and obviously much worse if you make no such adjustment.) Your point B isn't particularly relevant for your side of the argument. The fact that the financial crisis was worse at the end of the Bush administration provides some legitimate reason for higher deficits at the end of the Bush administration, not a reason to blame him even more than the (well deserved) blame he already gets.