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The Clinton Surplus Myth
Flopping Aces ^ | 02-17-10 | Derek Clark

Posted on 02/17/2010 3:02:48 PM PST by Starman417

I'm here to blow a hole in the myth that Clinton created an amazing budget surplus that Bush squandered and turned into a huge deficit. The above chart shows the deficit/surplus since 1980, pay no attention to Obama's first year. I've talked enough about his budget deficit recently.

The following is a chart of the Nasdaq from 1990 until now:

Read more at floppingaces.net...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Politics
KEYWORDS: clinton; coldwar; defensebudget; nationaldefense; peacedividend

1 posted on 02/17/2010 3:02:48 PM PST by Starman417
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To: Starman417

“I’m here to blow a hole in the myth that Clinton ...”

Some words do NOT beong in the same sentence.


2 posted on 02/17/2010 3:04:41 PM PST by jessduntno (If Bawney Fwank talks in his sleep, is it considered wetting the bed?)
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To: Starman417

What a jokey article. So the surpluses were illegitimate because they were fueled by cap gains? What a dumb argument.


3 posted on 02/17/2010 3:08:22 PM PST by Huck (Q: How can you tell a party is in the majority? A: They're complaining about the fillibuster.)
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To: Starman417

It’s easy to balance the budget when you gut the military. I remember no bullets and no jeep parts.


4 posted on 02/17/2010 3:09:17 PM PST by Suz in AZ
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To: Starman417

You don’t have to analyze anything, all you have to do is look at the national debt figures which increased throughout Clinton’s years. That disproves any spin about a “surplus”


5 posted on 02/17/2010 3:20:25 PM PST by tickmeister (tickmeister)
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To: Suz in AZ

The Clinton surplus was precisely due to military reductions which were enabled by the fall of the Soviet Union! It was the “peace dividend” that Clinton squandered. Any surplus was due primarily to Ronald Wilson Reagan.


6 posted on 02/17/2010 3:22:51 PM PST by the_Watchman
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To: Starman417

http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16


7 posted on 02/17/2010 3:24:19 PM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: tickmeister

Absolutely correct. The so-called surpluses were sleight of hand, enabled by messing with Social Security funds.


8 posted on 02/17/2010 3:25:47 PM PST by savedbygrace
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To: Starman417
If you will notice that the surplus came directly AFTER the Republicans took over BOTH houses of Congress.
9 posted on 02/17/2010 3:41:46 PM PST by Slyfox
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To: savedbygrace; the_Watchman
Absolutely correct. The so-called surpluses were sleight of hand, enabled by messing with Social Security funds.

It's possible the Social Security funds and military cuts might have contributed to the "surplus", but I think the real cause was that Clinton refinanced the debt (I think in 1998) with low-interest short-term loans. I remember Alan Greenspan mentioning at the time what a bad idea it was. The result was a temporary decrease in one of the largest chunks of the budget, interest on the national debt, which subsequently ballooned after the term expired. Just like the recent housing/mortgage fiasco that has caused a large part of our current economic woes.

10 posted on 02/17/2010 3:52:23 PM PST by Shethink13
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To: Starman417

More to the point: When morons tell us “Clinton gave us a budget surplus”, tell them they have it exactly backwards. We, the Amercan taxpayer, had more money taken from us than the Republican-controlled Congress spent. We gave Clinton the surplus, not the other way around.


11 posted on 02/17/2010 3:53:56 PM PST by Dilbert56 (Harry Reid, D-Nev.: "We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war.")
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To: Shethink13

See #7. There was no surplus in any of the Clinton years.


12 posted on 02/17/2010 4:01:11 PM PST by savedbygrace
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To: Dilbert56

Within ten years the interest payments on the debt will eat up half of all government tax revenues. The politicians should be tarred, feathered and whipped for wasting our tax dollars and shackling us with debt.


13 posted on 02/17/2010 4:12:45 PM PST by peeps36 (Democrats Don't Need No Stinking Input From You Little People)
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To: Suz in AZ
It’s easy to balance the budget when you gut the military. I remember no bullets and no jeep parts.

I remember an analysis somewhere back then that showed if you took all the cuts from Clinton - the personnel, vehicles, etc. and put them together it would've made something like the 5th or 6th largest fighting force in the world. So he basically got rid of, cancelled, or delayed an entire Country's worth of military men and machines.

14 posted on 02/17/2010 4:23:46 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (obama out now! I'll keep my money, my guns, and my freedom - you can keep the change.)
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To: Starman417

Rush Limbaugh blew a hole in that myth before Bush was even elected. I don’t recall the specifics but the way projected revenues are calculated was changed from its traditional methods. It was an accounting trick.


15 posted on 02/17/2010 4:42:57 PM PST by TigersEye (It's the Marxism, stupid! ... And they call themselves Progressives.)
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To: Starman417
The Myth of the Clinton Surplus by Craig Steiner
16 posted on 02/17/2010 6:31:16 PM PST by PeaceBeWithYou (De Oppresso Liber! (50 million and counting in Afganistan and Iraq))
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