🚀 go-pugleaf

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George H.W. Bush added significantly to the debt and had a record
deficit at the time of $293 billion in 1992.

Bill Clinton, with the largest tax increase in history coupled with
our most expansive eight-year economic growth, brought this record
deficit down to zero in four years and then had four years of
surplus.

Enter George W. Bush and his $3 trillion tax cut for the rich and the
cost of his illegal war. He doubled the debt in only eight years to
almost $11 trillion. Were Republicans asleep during this period or
just not interested in debt?

It’s also necessary to make a distinction between good and bad debt.
An affordable house mortgage can be good debt for a family. But a
vacation home mortgage for a financially strapped family is bad debt —
likewise for a nation. Reagan’s CIA had to know that the Soviet Union
was near economic collapse and a large-scale defense buildup was
unnecessary. But scare the public and bad debt becomes easy. The elder
Bush continued the debt increase (although Iraq I was probably good
debt) coupled with the ever-increasing bad debt for a continued
defense buildup. We obviously need defense forces — but do we really
need to spend almost as much as the rest of the world combined?

Clinton, a Democrat, reduced the debt for the first time in about 30
years. Then the junior Bush arrived with a projected $5 trillion
surplus over the next decade which Clinton handed him on a silver
platter. So what does he do? He not only squanders that but also
doubles the debt — all unnecessary — and all bad debt. The Republicans
have drowned us in debt in order to “starve the beast” so the
government can’t help people in troubled times. That is their debt
strategy.

Now that George W. Bush has handed Barack Obama the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression and a whopping debt that allows no
maneuvering room, what can he do? He is forced to use a record deficit
to rescue our financial system — the centerpiece of the economy. At
least the stimulus money is staying in this country and is being used
to help people during a crisis. True, we have to bring deficits under
control and worry about inflation, but first things first. Obama
clearly recognizes the debt issue. Hopefully he will be able to guide
us through this extreme period.

Will the Republicans help? I doubt it. For six months, they have been
like little dogs yapping at the heels of Democrats trying to fix the
problem for which Republicans are mostly responsible. At least they
can now say the word “debt.” That is some progress.
DAVID McLOUGHLIN
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Oh yeah.they are still looking for the Weapons of Mass Destruction and
"we don't torture" handbook.
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