Any Deal on Taxes, the Budget, the Debt, etc. Is Complete, Utter Bullshit

[Yavin4]

Why? Look back to the 90s. We balanced the budget. We had surpluses. We were paying down the debt. All of it went away in a flash in 2001 when Bush was elected and pushed through two tax cuts which kicked us right back into deficits.

The last two Democratic presidents have been pushed into deficit traps. They've been forced to address the deficit while Republican presidents have been allowed to cut taxes and never ever worry about nor have to address the deficit.

If President Obama reaches any kind of a deal, it won't last very long. At some point a Republican will win the presidency again, and we will have growing deficits and debts once again.

[mmonk]

1. It's the Santa Claus syndrome.

The tax cut Santa Claus.

[wryter2000]

2. It'd be funny to watch one of them if we did have a balanced budget amendment

I'm not for such an amendment, but it's an amusing thought exercise to imagine one of those bozos actually having to balance a budget.

[Yavin4]

3. They Would Still Pass Tax Cuts and Start Unpaid for Wars

They'd then make even more draconian social safety net cuts.

[Igel]

4. Clinton had record growth.

Of course, he saw the very start of the housing bubble, and certainly had the tech bubble to himself. NASDAQ and all that. And the taxes associated with the tech bubble.

He also raised taxes the year after the recession was over, and had a nice stimulus kick in around 14 months after the recession was over to help things along.

Then there were the balanced budget battles that he fought and won until he decided to be on the side of the balanced budget issue in '96. They limited the rate of growth of federal spending at a time when the payroll taxes were bringing in extra money and the economy was expanding.

After the tech bubble that was largely behind the growth in the '90s ended job and GDP growth never really returned. Money went into commodities, including housing as we all became bubble-makers.

The budget surplus from the Great Prediction of '00 was based not on '00's economy, but on that from '95 or so to '99. All growth, all the time, ignore the leading indicators and record period of growth, there will never be another recession. The recession that started 2/01 all by itself Xed the surplus. Even the CBO criticized the assumptions that it had to make in predicting what it thought was a silly forecast.

The tax cuts were considered stimulus. Stimulus good. Stimulus bad. They also, by themselves, Xed the surplus.

Then 9/11 and the horrible Afghanistan war that all the real Democrats voted against and no true Democrat could ever support. And the wars by themselves Xed out the surplus.