Comments on: Bogus Defense Budget Cuts

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:31:42 +0000

Thatâs just off the top of my head though.

What, no links?

By: Rick DeMent

Rick DeMent — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:12:55 +0000

ken: Your explanation fails to explain why we had budget deficits, under Democratic presidents, when taxes on the upper percentiles were much, much higher.

Let's see, under Carter we had the equivalent of $80 a barrel oil and even with the CPI as high as it was average business investment under Carter was more then double that of the Reagan era and 3 times that for the Bush I era. Before that you would have to go back to Johnson.

That's just off the top of my head though.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:56:47 +0000

Sometimes I think Ken credits Clinton for all the asteroids that didn't hit the earth during the '90s.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:48:30 +0000

ken: Your explanation fails to explain why we had budget deficits, under Democratic presidents, when taxes on the upper percentiles were much, much higher.

Further, we had huge budget deficits under Clinton until the bubble--and Gingrich and co. took over the Congress. Divided government makes cutting spending easier. Even then, though, we simply grew our way out of deficits because of a massive--and largely artificial--growth in the economy owing to the stock/tech booms.

By: ken

ken — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:37:10 +0000

Budget deficits were eliminated by President Bill Clinton by raising taxes on the top 2% of the taxpayers in the United States. The economy, instead on going into a recession as every conservative pundit and republican politician predicted it would, boomed.

Budget deficits are not inevitable except when we have conservatives in charge. Conservatives have proven, time and again, to be without the spine to raise the revenue needed to cover our desired level of spending.