| no.. reagan and congress caused the deficit.. it continued into bush 1's presidency. and he had to choose between inflation or raising taxes - so he made the right decision and rose taxes. stupid voters, however, didn't understand the reasoning for raising taxes, so perot was able to take some 22% of bush's votes in '92. the deficit continued to increase under bush the first.
clinton and congress were the first to reverse that trend in decades. we were set to eliminate all public debt in roughly 10 years. the savings created from that would've extended social security and medicare's solvency for years. plus, it would've lowered long-term interest rates which would've been a boom for the economy.
but alas... now we're in one horrible mess and it isn't going to get any better. that is to say, after seeing bush in action for these past 4 years, i have absolutely no faith in him actively working to cut the deficit. it isn't a priority for him - since virtually none of his supporters give a flying shit about the deficit. they like him because he's "moral" and he's their war president. the deficit isn't important - because they haven't paid any attention to the long-term implications of his policies. |