To: zzpat who wrote (1037487 ) 11/8/2017 1:21:16 PM From: RetiredNow 1 RecommendationRecommended By
Read Replies (1) | Respond to Yes, agreed that recessions cause taxes to go down and deficits, especially when governments increase spending to replace lower business and consumer spending. But this blame or credit the President on the economy thing is what is really intellectually week. First of all, George Bush inherited an Internet Bubble that was on the cusp of bursting and then 9/11 happened, so the debt under him was caused by that and the aftermath. So George and Obama both share blame, if you want to blame Presidents, which I don't agree with. Also, not sure how old you are, but I remember Reagan well. He inherited a very shitty economy from Carter and did wonders to rectify it by pushing Congress to take on Reaganomics. Volcker was in the middle of stomping down on massive inflation from the Carter era, which drove growth to a standstill, which is why they called it stagflation. Reagan came in and worked with Congress to unleash deficits through lower taxes and increased gov't spending to overcome the lingering malaise from Democratic mismanagement. It worked...and it added a lot of debt, although we all know that 1982 marked the beginning of one of the longest periods of stock market growth in our history. In addition, many say that Reagan's military spending competition with Russia was one of the key reasons the USSR collapsed. There were reasons for why Congress did what they did back then.The fact is that Congress is the holder of the purse strings and is a more direct root cause of deficits, debt, and/or surpluses. Newt Gingrich struck a deal with Clinton, which lead to the balancing of the budget, pay as you go, and eventually a very brief surplus. It is Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle that have destroyed the viability of our economy through massive increases in debt.
