FY17 Projected Deficit: $559 Billion. And Trump wants TAX CUTS???

[eniwetok]

1. why did Dems change their position on debt paydown?

In the late 90's Clinton vetoed a number of irresponsible tax cuts proposed by the GOP. The reason was it threatened the Surplus and if debt wasn't payed down, it might weaken Social Security. Even Bush pretended he was being responsible in this area. Here's one of his press releases from May 2000 http://romcache.tripod.com/bush2000.pdf

One MIGHT have thought that when Bush went in the opposite direction, doing everything he could to create more debt, that the Dems would be furious. Yet when Obama promised to make permanent most of Bush's irresponsible tax cuts... most Dems seemed to go along. While obviously the Bush Crash created havoc with finances... gone was that Democratic urgency to pay down debt. They seemed comfortable with deficits settling in at about 400-450 billion a year.