Delay = RINO
 

I'd say the coalition members with roughly similar standing include the religious right, the instinctive hawks (including a lot of people who care deeply about guns), and the business-oriented conservatives. I would say that the business oriented conservatives are a group that is always in the minority because there are just not a lot of them, but they can sometimes buy their way to dominance. I think the religious right is one of the constituencies running the show, just not the only constituency doing so.

Delay = RINO
 

And when a grown-up takes over as President and has to confront the Reagan/Bush/Bush debt, it'll be a bitch of a hangover.

Delay = RINO
 

I think the best way for a third party to form in a two party system is to grow up within one of the two main parties and then break off. This is essentially how the National Republicans (which morphed into the Whigs and then whose stragglers were picked up, mostly after a period with the Know-Nothings, by the modern Republican Party) was born.

For RT.
 

Watch to the end.

(work-safe)

Delay = RINO
 

I think I'd rather have legislators who believe in passing few laws paired with an executive who believes in using government power vigorously, rather than the opposite.

Delay = RINO
 

It does not beat cut and cut.



Spending less than if the Dems were in power.



Yes and they were looming in 1994. But it was the growth that pulled us out. Every year the budget kept getting readjusted because of the added revenue because of growth. This year the deficit was adjusted by 28% because of projected growth. If we continue growing we will pull right out of these deficits. You keep the economy growing and this years deficits will seem like chump change in ten years. Just like the deficits of the early 1990 seem like chump change now. They key is growth, growth, growth.

There hasn't been as many cuts as I would like but the economy is growing.


Yes but the biggest factor determining how much we bring in is how much the economy is growing. Not tax cuts, tax raises, or spending increases but economic growth. Economic growth has had more to do with the deficits in the past twelve years than anything else.



Do you know of a better way to get out of a recession.





Sorry. Congresses spending restraints balanced the budget. Remember - Clinton fought the Repub spending cuts every step of the way. You guys keep forgetting that. All Clinton did after the Repubs took over was prolong the time until we reached balanced budgets.

The Dems had congress for forty years and never balanced a budget. The Repubs had congress for like five years and balanced teh budget. Now the Repubs have taken us into a deficit, but during a recession. So when we are growing who has the best track recording of balancing budgets. The Republicans.

Delay = RINO
 

Only a minority of Dems in Congress and the Senate supported NAFTA. A majority of Repubs in both houses was the reason NAFTA passed. I supported Kosovo and Iraq. Many Dems did not support Kosovo. The only congress in the past fifty years to have balanced a budget is a Republican congress. Congress is in charge of the budget (in case you have not read the constitution lately).

Delay = RINO
 

"cut and spend" is exactly what Bush and the Repub congress have been doing. Cut taxes, spend more money. Borrow to make up the difference.


Name the Dem congress or administration that has caused deficits this big.



Oh, okay. So all we need is ten years of uninterrupted growth and we can start dealing with the Bush debt. Great news!


I'm sorry -- I thought we were in a deficit-causing recession. Which is it?

Or do we need to be 10 years into an expansion before we see fiscal sanity?


Under Reagan, there was economic growth, but massive deficits.

Under Clinton, there was economic growth, and a surplus.

Under Bush II, there is (supposedly) economic growth, and massive deficits.

Yeah, I'm sure tax cuts to the wealthy have nothing to do with deficits.


There are tax cuts that spur growth, and tax cuts that are simply benefitting the wealthy without any growth impact. As an example of the latter, the estate tax cuts.


Right. Because increasing gov't revenue thru tax raises had absolutely nothing to do with cutting the deficits. And you are ignoring the '93 deficit reduction.

Since 1980, we have learned:

Repub President, Dem Congress = massive deficit.
Dem President, Repub Congress = surplus.
Repub President, Repub Congress = massive deficit.

Delay = RINO
 

I'm afraid this is not true. The House came under the control of the Democrats in 1954; that year, the deficit as a percentage of GDP was 0.3%, down from 1.7% in the last year of the Republican Congress. The Democratic house then proceeded to balance the budget on a regular basis into the Nixon Administration (the 1969 budget was in surplus). The data is on the white house site at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget...s/hist01z3.xls .

It is pretty clear that the Great Society legislation had less to do with the initial budget deficits than the Vietnam War, and the inflation caused first and foremost by the oil embargo during the Ford and Carter administrations also had a huge impact on creating a period of structural deficits in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Delay = RINO
 

Pulled us out of the recession.



The economy is always getting bigger. It is not the size of the deficit but the deficits size compared to the size of the economy.





Yes it is. But it may be a lot less than ten years.



We were but now we are in growth and that is why the deficits are getting smaller.

Depends on the strenght of the growth.



You keep focusing on the President like you have never looked at a constitution. Congress passes the budget.



Your focus on the estate tax demonstrates your incencerity. The Estate tax is an insignificant part of tax revenue. It is like one percent of the revenue we pull in.



That was just one year. It took many years of controlled growth and a growing economy. All a factor of fiscal discipline instituted by the Repub congress.

For the past fifty years we have learned.

Dem Congress = deficits in growing economy and recession.

Repub Congress = declining deficits in a growing economy and increasing deficits in a slowing economy.

What we need is a Repub congress and a growing economy. That is the only formula that works. We have both and the deficits are getting smaller just like they did in the late 1990s.

Delay = RINO
 

That oil embargo was Bill Clinton's fault. Something to do with his work for the Soviets while he was studying ("studying") in England.

Delay = RINO
 

I thought we didn't have to separate Clinton/Carter ? I mean besides distinguishing where all they lusted.

Delay = RINO
 

We had slight surpluses in 1960 and 1969. Every other year was deficits. We did not get sustained surpluses until the Repubicans took over. There were plenty of times of growth when the Dems controlled congress and we did not pull out of our deficists.

And if you are going to blame Vietnam, funny that we are in war on terror right now.

Delay = RINO
 

I blame it on gerrymandering. Unless someone retires from their seat - what is the average percentage of incumbant re-election? Something like 95%

Congressmen from both sides of the aisle can spend like drunken sailors because there is never any reprisal on election day.

For RT.
 

Has long has this NBC "Live at Five" talk show talking-schmoe Jack Cafferty been on CNN?

Somehow I missed this.