Chief - I heard a Dem supporter claiming that Bill Clinton left the American economy something like

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

27 trillion in the black. Might have been less but basically **** loads.

Couple of questions,

1. Is it true? ( never mind the accuracy of the figures).

2. If it is true, is it as significant as the Dem fundamentalists make out.

[Herr Floyd - PEGIDA]

Cos that is a candidate.

[seasider7]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Budget_De ficit_1971_to_2001.png (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Budget_Deficit_1971_to_2001.png)



You'd need an army of non partisan forensic accountants to argue/counter argue specifics, but this should help.

[wagoaw (out only, no in)]

http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/d/d/Bill-Clinton

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

touch yourself is your most fascinating post to date.

[barrybueno]

[Chief Arrowhead]

recall the years of 1999-2000. Remember y2k? Lots of capital expenditures rushed into those two years. All the tech stocks going public. Folks taking lots and lots of capital gains.

Plus he had the "benefit" of a Republican House that stunted his big plans for government expenditures. And then you had Monica-gate. At the end Ol' Bill was a wimpering noodle, completely ineffective.

To claim that his policies were the result is wholly inaccurate, but nevertheless a President gets the blame or credit for how the economy is under his term...

That is until now. Bush gets the blame for everything wrong under Obama. I don't expect that to stop, either.

[Alexism - Atheoist]

but that was never real, but their budgets were generally revenue neutral or better. They benefited from a booming bubble economy, but didn't spend it all. The booming economy was not hampered at all by tax increases Clinton passed mid-90s to try to bring more revenue in to pay off the debt - leading to the green trend you see.

They were prudent fiscally.

The graph seasider shows below is the simple fact - Repubs always talk a good game about how fiscally responsible they are, but that;s like Joey Barton telling and telling and telling you how he's a very reasonable pacifist. You can choose to believe him if you want, but don't expect other people to respect you if you do.

W also had a bubble economy. Passed massive tax cuts promising they'd cause a great surge in job creation (it didn't obviously and no evidence yet exists that they do but it's an article of faith among conservatives) and spent recklessly.

So now, we're told wow, what a massive debt we have now that we've cut taxes on the rich so much - we need to pay it off...

So how do we pay it off? Raise taxes on the rich of cut services to poor and middle class?

Yesterday was the death of conservativism. (until people forget its details) They've run out of excuses. :markmywords: