XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.home.repair, talk.politics.guns   
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   From: clinton.lies@clintonfoundation.org   
      
   Let us establish one point definitively: Bill Clinton didn’t balance the   
   budget. Yes, he was there when it happened. But the record shows that was   
   about the extent of his contribution.   
      
   Many in the media have flubbed this story. The New York Times on October   
   1st said, “Clinton balances the budget.” Others have praised George Bush.   
   Political analyst Bill Schneider declared on CNN that Bush is one of “the   
   real heroes” for his willingness to raise taxes — and never mind read my   
   lips. (Once upon a time, lying was something that was considered wrong in   
   Washington, but under the last two presidents our standards have dropped.)   
   In any case, crediting George Bush for the end of the deficit requires   
   some nifty logical somersaults, since the deficit hit its Mount Everest   
   peak of $290 billion in St. George’s last year in office.   
      
   And 1993 — the year of the giant Clinton tax hike — was not the turning   
   point in the deficit wars, either. In fact, in 1995, two years after that   
   tax hike, the budget baseline submitted by the president’s own Office of   
   Management and Budget and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office   
   predicted $200 billion deficits for as far as the eye could see. The   
   figure shows the Clinton deficit baseline. What changed this bleak   
   outlook?   
      
   Newt Gingrich and company — for all their faults — have received virtually   
   no credit for balancing the budget. Yet today’s surplus is, in part, a   
   byproduct of the GOP’s single-?minded crusade to end 30 years of red ink.   
   Arguably, Gingrich’s finest hour as Speaker came in March 1995 when he   
   rallied the entire Republican House caucus behind the idea of eliminating   
   the deficit within seven years.   
      
   We have a balanced budget today that is mostly a result of 1) an   
   exceptionally strong economy that is creating gobs of new tax revenues and   
   2) a shrinking military budget. Social spending is still soaring and now   
   costs more than $1 trillion.   
      
   Skeptics said it could not be done in seven years. The GOP did it in four.   
      
   Now let us contrast this with the Clinton fiscal record. Recall that it   
   was the Clinton White House that fought Republicans every inch of the way   
   in balancing the budget in 1995. When Republicans proposed their own   
   balanced-?budget plan, the White House waged a shameless Mediscare   
   campaign to torpedo the plan — a campaign that the Washington Post slammed   
   as “pure demagoguery.” It was Bill Clinton who, during the big budget   
   fight in 1995, had to submit not one, not two, but five budgets until he   
   begrudgingly matched the GOP’s balanced-?budget plan. In fact, during the   
   height of the budget wars in the summer of 1995, the Clinton   
   administration admitted that “balancing the budget is not one of our top   
   priorities.”   
      
   And lest we forget, it was Bill Clinton and his wife who tried to engineer   
   a federal takeover of the health care system — a plan that would have sent   
   the government’s finances into the stratosphere. Tom Delay was right: for   
   Clinton to take credit for the balanced budget is like Chicago Cubs   
   pitcher Steve Trachsel taking credit for delivering the pitch to Mark   
   McGuire that he hit out of the park for his 62nd home run.   
      
   The figure shows that the actual cumulative budget deficit from 1994 to   
   1998 was almost $600 billion below the Clintonomics baseline. Part of the   
   explanation for the balanced budget is that Republicans in Congress had   
   the common sense to reject the most reckless features of Clintonomics.   
   Just this year, Bill Clinton’s budget proposed more than $100 billion in   
   new social spending — proposals that were mostly tossed overboard. It’s   
   funny, but back in January the White House didn’t seem too concerned about   
   saving the surplus for “shoring up Social Security.”   
      
   Now for the bad news for GOP partisans. The federal budget has not been   
   balanced by any Republican spending reductions. Uncle Sam now spends $150   
   billion more than in 1995. Over the past 10 years, the defense budget,   
   adjusted for inflation, has been cut $100 billion, but domestic spending   
   has risen by $300 billion.   
      
   We have a balanced budget today that is mostly a result of 1) an   
   exceptionally strong economy that is creating gobs of new tax revenues and   
   2) a shrinking military budget. Social spending is still soaring and now   
   costs more than $1 trillion. Is this the kind of balanced budget that   
   fiscal conservatives want? A budget with no deficit, but that funds the   
   biggest government ever?   
      
   So the budget is balanced, but now comes the harder part: cutting the   
   budget. Bill Clinton has laid down a marker in the political debate with   
   his “save Social Security first,” gambit. That theme should be turned   
   against him and his government expansionist agenda. Congress should   
   respond: No new government programs until we have fixed Social Security.   
   This means no IMF bailouts. No new day care subsidies. No extending   
   Medicare coverage to 55-?year-?olds. (Honestly, if Clinton has his way, it   
   won’t be long till teenagers are eligible for Medicare.)   
      
   The budget surpluses over the next five years could easily exceed $500   
   billion. Leaving all of that extra money lying around within the grasp of   
   vote-?buying politicians is an invitation to financial mischief. If   
   Congress and the president use the surpluses to fund a new spending spree,   
   we may find that surpluses are more a curse than a blessing.   
      
   Who Really Balanced the Budget   
   Federal Deficits (Billions $)   
   Clinton Baseline*	Actual   
   1994	$203	$203   
   1995	175	164   
   1996	205	107   
   1997	210	22   
   1998	210	+60   
   * Congressional Budget Office forecast, April 1995.   
      
   https://www.cato.org/commentary/no-bill-clinton-didnt-balance-budget   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)