On Mar 17, 4:23*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Per Edward Dolan:



Under Carter/Clinton the federal deficit was reduced by 13%.
Under Reagan/Bush it was increased by 62%.

Clinton was only able to reduce the deficit because of pressure coming from
a Republican Congress. But Bush was a big spender and did not even have
brains enough to defend our borders from illegal aliens. But no one in the
world can spend like liberal Dems. Obama is bankrupting the country.
[...]

That's what a lot of Republican damage-control types say, but
observe (in the link above) that after Clinton, G.W. Bush had a
Republican congress for six of his eight years in office, yet
they managed do add 15.1% *to the national debt. *

And that's not to mention Reagan with his Republican congress for
what? 8 years? that managed to run up the credit card by an
additional 20.6 percent.

All the while managing to convince their base that they were
champions of fiscal responsibility and the Dems were not.

I can't argue with the old sages that said that sex was the
original sin, but I'd say that stupidity and ignorance are
contenders for a close second place.

Lest you think I'm on one side or another, I would say that both
parties are very, very guilty of pandering to the fantasy that
our country is going to get out of the mess that it is in without
the voters experiencing some significant pain. * The Republicans
may draw a little more ire bco the blatant hypocrisy of dumping
on Dems as big spenders while they add so much to the debt... but
in the end they're both lacking in integrity.

The Dems talk about "investing" when they're really just handing
out money.

The Repubs talk about "fiscal responsibility, *"no new taxes" and
"cutting the budget" - when every non-partisan source I've heard
says balancing the budget cannot be done on cuts along and
they've increased the debt hugely while saying those words.

Neither one wants to talk about raising the retirement age for
social security, raising the social security contribution, or
cutting back on Medicare.

And I can't blame them. * It's us, the electorate, that's behind
all this. * Let a politician from any party even mention raising
taxes or cutting entitlements and see what happens - the others
are all over him like flies on dung.

Simpson/Bowles said it all in their report. * The Repubs
pretended to be outraged over it and Obama sort of patted the
deficit reduction committee on the head and moved on.

I don't disagree with much that you've said, but I notice you didn't
mention "defense" spending at all. I think it's quite pertinent to any
budget discussion.

- Frank Krygowski