Clintonites to Obama: Cut the Deficit

"Liberals "shifted spending so as to give the appearance,..." ????
What on earth are you talking about?"
Methinks you don't understand governmental accounting. It is legal for government agencies to shift debits and credits around depending on when debts will be settle . Besides, the surplus was "projected". It didn't take into consideration any type of spending that would occur in a future Congress and also didn't make any assumptions on discretionary spending made in the last term of Clinton's administration. It also did not make any considerations about long-term liabilities such as Medicare and Social Security. So, the projected budget surplus is a accounting trick. If businesses did this they would be in all kinds of trouble. In fact, they were. See Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, Qwest, ImClone, Global Crossing, etc.
For more information on this, go to www.gao.gov and do a search on "2000 budget surplus" and read the ENTIRE pdf file which features Congressional testimony of then Comptroller General David Walker.

Chris of AZ @ Aug 28, 2008 17:11:58 PM

Liberals "shifted spending so as to give the appearance,..." ????
What on earth are you talking about?

of @ Aug 28, 2008 15:03:19 PM

"The "liberals" balanced your budget and the neocons maxed out all the credit cards."
No, the "liberals" shifted spending so as to give the appearance that they balanced the budget, the conservatives just lowered taxes, but kept spending at the same level without cutting spending. Both parties believe in using credit to spend money (this has been the case ever since Keynesian economics took root in governmental economic policy).

Chris of AZ @ Aug 28, 2008 13:29:16 PM

Spending is the key...

...and the first candidate that recognizes that and runs with it will not only win, they will go down in history as one of the great presidents. Too much focus is made on taxes. They are quite simply too high. No matter what top rate they pick taxes will peak around 20% of GDP. The government is too big and wasteful. That is the biggest area of common ground between Dems and GOP. McCain has an dege here with his earmark history. He needs to quit the anti-business rhetoric and give voters some straight talk on cutting government programs. It's called "deficit spending" for a reason!

PATRICK J. DUGGAN of IL @ Aug 28, 2008 11:55:07 AM

McCain plans to increase the deficit for heaven's sakes, and by a lot. What's with this Pethokoukis guy always acting like Republicans are the fiscal conservatives? The last 16 years have proven the precise opposite---and both ways. The "liberals" balanced your budget and the neocons maxed out all the credit cards.

of @ Aug 28, 2008 10:46:50 AM

Besides, Obama is talking about spending much more than what the current president is doing. He has to focus on growing investment to meet his spending criteria.

Chris of AZ @ Aug 27, 2008 23:00:17 PM

Mondale Redux

Leon's comments are welcomed in the discussion, but no one get's elected on tax increase and budget slashing. Let's campaign on a comprehensive review of the budget understanding that interest on the debt, social security and medicare will be difficult hurdles, when you factor in the national debt and retiring baby boomers.

Ken Myers of @ Aug 27, 2008 21:53:23 PM

Spending is the key...

Mondale Redux

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