Quote:
Originally Posted by djplong
The GOP broke all records when it came to deficit spending.
Then the Democrats came in and made it worse.
Explain to me again why I should vote for the GOP when they inherited a surplus and handed a trillion dollar deficit to their successors?
This cycle of the 'new guy' being worse than the 'old guy' has got to stop and I don't see either party having the stones to take a good hard look at things.
Here's a hint as to why the deficit seems harder to tame than before - we're not running quarter-trillion dollar surpluses in Social Security anymore to hide the general deficit. We're breaking even and heading into a deficit in that column.
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DP, I fully agree that the shift of social security from taking in more than it payed out to being a deficit program has significantly contributed to the deficit.
However, I must take exception to the oft repeated statement that Bush inherited a surplus. He did not. At the time he took office, the United States's economy was contracting not expanding, consequently lower tax income. The real kicker was the dot.com bubble crash in March of 2000. The Clinton surplus was built largely on capital gains taxes from the tech stocks. When the bubble collapsed, the income from these ceased as the first 'Bush' fiscal year began on October 1, 2000 after the capital gains tax revenue ended and just as the economy was entering a recessionary period. The problem was compounded by the events of 9/11.
I do fault Bush for not cutting government spending to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also fault him for never vetoing congressional earmarks.