In 2001, the U.S. experienced its last budget surplus, a result of record growth in the Clinton era

[ffr]

Trump’s proposed budget is a deeply cynical document


Donald Trump’s supporters like to reassure themselves that the president is a tell-it-like-it-is fellow who delivers on his promises in a way that his predecessors and other more traditional politicians did not. Yet the $4.8 trillion budget he submitted to Congress on Monday once again demonstrates how that view is an absolute fiction.
<snip>

In good economic times, deficits are supposed to go down, as they did during President Obama’s second term. In 2001, the U.S. experienced its last budget surplus, a result of record growth (as well as tax increases and significant cost containment) in the Bill Clinton years. What makes this particularly worrisome is that the U.S. is due for an economic downturn after the “sugar high” of the Trump tax cuts. That gives the next president fewer tools, like deficit spending, to prime the pump.
<snip>

It is budgeting for Twitter followers, not for reality and certainly not to win over the legislative branch.

It’s not unlike bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honor on a “shock jock” radio talk-show host best known for his racist, homophobic and misogynistic diatribes. It’s not just that Trump’s core supporters like the decision, it’s that they love the discomfort it causes anyone who is not a member of their cult. - Hartford Courant

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick and recommend

[Vogon_Glory]

2. The Republicans haven't produced a balanced budget in twenty years

longer, if you count George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan. Orange Julius not only started with deficit spending, but increased it with his billionaire giveaway tax package. George Dubya Bush ran a tide of red ink throughout his Presidency and made things worse by his famous tax cuts while the US was in a war in Afghanistan (In a WAR!!!) . Dubya's Dad was the last Republican who was serious about fiscal responsibility and he ran deficits and got fired by his party for suggesting that they might be needed to balance his budgets. Ronald Reagan ran deficits from start to finish.

If the Repuds were serious about balanced budget, they'd hike taxes on the billionaires.

But, as we know very well, they won't.

[ffr]

3. You mean the GOP that was shutting down the gov't because of Clinton's 1998 budget, that GOP?

You mean the GOP that 100% of their members fought kicking and screaming to vote against Clinton's 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, then one that VP Al Gore had to cast the tie breaking vote on, which set course for turning deficits into surpluses? You mean that GOP that balanced a budget 20 years ago?

Let's not dilute ourselves. The Kremlin's GOP has never been fiscal responsibility. NEVER! The only reason they went along with passing Clinton's 1998 budget was because Bill Clinton had approval ratings of a rock star and they couldn't stop him from taking credit for a booming economy and projected record budget surpluses that were a result of something the 100% of the GOP was 100% dead set AGAINST!

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Yup, those guys. n/t

Anyone trying to push the meme that the Republican Party is fiscally responsible is clueless, ill-informed and/or a liar.

[moose65]

5. That was a different era

I can remember when the deficit was going to be something like 290 billion when George HW Bush was president, and how the pundits of that day said how AWFUL that was. A deficit of 290 billion seems positively quaint these days!

Damn these Republicans! At the end of Clinton's term, there were forecasts of surpluses for the next decade, and the prospect of paying off the entire national debt wasn't just a pipe dream. Then came the disaster of the 2000 election, and Bush Jr's two wars and prescription drug plan that was all paid for on the nation's credit card. Never in American history had taxes been cut just as we were going into a war.

Republicans are total hypocrites when it comes to the debt and the deficit. It took us over 200 years to amass a trillion dollars in debt, and then during the Reagan and Bush I years the debt went through the roof, more than tripling between 1980 and 1990. The Clinton years slowed it down a little, then Bush II exploded it yet again, doubling the debt in 8 years before the big crash came.