The root cause of most of our present government difficulties?

[kentuck]

It's hard to know where you are going if you don't know where you have been.

But we would most likely not be discussing CR's and deficits and government shutdowns today if one piece of legislation had not happened.

It is good to recall that when Bill Clinton left office, he left a balanced budget and good sized surplus for government to work with.

Also, we can never forget the election of 2000. It was stolen by the Republicans and the Supreme Court. There is simply no denying that fact.

However, even with all those shenanigans, we could have still survived intact if they had not passed the Bush taxcuts in 2001 and 2003. Instead of having a balanced budget by 2009, we were $11 trillion dollars in debt.

If there is one piece of legislation that put us in this hole, it was those Bush taxcuts, in my opinion.

[kelliekat44]

1. i agree. And we have had several chances to undo some of the harm but the voting public listens to

too much FOX, Rush and BEck and those who don't just don't vote in elections except for the Presidency.

[el_bryanto]

2. I would agree in part - but also think the expenses run up by our unnecessary invasion of Iraq

contributed quite a bit as well. The Republican plan is always to empty out the money reserve and then try and cut spending; seems like the opposite of fiscal responsibility, but what do I know?

Bryant

[Festivito]

3. April 2004 decision to unfetter banks from having 10% cash on hand.

Allowing CDO to be treated the same as cash on hand.

That was about a 645-Trillion dollar mistake. Yes, with a T, not a B or M.

Allowing companies to get tax breaks for moving plants out of the country is up there.

There real underlying problem is not having more media competition for readers instead of competition for plain old money.

[DGeorge]

4. It's much simpler than that: MONEY$$$$$$$