And then the band stopped playing and the music stopped. The internet and stock market bubble burst, and recession kicked in as Bush was taking office, and then we had 9-11. Meanwhile, Bush could not deflect the pressure for drug frebbies for the geezers, and felt the need to cut taxes to jump start the economy if he was not going to go the way of his pere. Meanwhile, employment law dysfunctionalities such as workers' comp and outsourcing made job growth sluggish despite GDP growth. Meanwhile the lumbering beast of the cost of entitlements continued its slow but persistent exponential trajectory upwards, continue to do to the fiscal body what the ebola bacteria does to flesh, eat it alive, from the inside out. Thus the deficit ballooned. Money, money everywhere was needed and spended.
Thus the chart. Kerry will talk about it a lot. But charts are mere end products, not explanations.
And what's Kerry going to do about it? What is he going to do to fund his medical care for everybody, a pristine environment, fully fund no child left behind, slash class size, fund science the way it needs to be, slash the cost of college tuition, and give more generous college loans, and all the rest? Of course, he is going to repeal the tax cuts for the "rich." That will cause the fiscal house to get in order. Piece of cake. The rich are as plentiful a source of funds as the Mississippi is of water. I am sure it all pencils. I am sure Kerry has bean bean counted it all, and with dynamic scoring, to take into account that as rates go up, the rich will report less taxable income.
Keep hope alive.