[ClaireSolt]

What makes you say he promised that? He wanted personal accounts in Social Security. It was Clinton that was hung up on paying down the debt. And it was Clinton who concealed a recession and packed regulatory agencies with cronies so that we had corporate scandals. Frankly, you don't talk about paying off debt in a down economy. Now, we did pay off $20b with last month's surplus.

[eraser2005]

Whoah... talk about CLUELESS. The government routinely gets monthly surpluses during certain months. January did pull a surplus, but that is normal considering quarterly corporate tax payments.

“We’re going to set aside all the payroll taxes for one thing, Social Security,” - George W. Bush, November 3, 2000

"To make sure the retirement savings of America's seniors are not diverted to any other program, my budget protects all $2.6 trillion of the Social Security surplus for Social Security and for Social Security alone" - George W. Bush, February 27, 2001

"We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. At the end of those 10 years, we will have paid down all the debt that is available to retire" - George W. Bush, February 27, 2001

In 2001, The gov't raided 36 billion of the 163 billion social security surplus. In 2002-2004, it raided all $530 of the social security surplus for other spending.

The on-budget deficit for this year will be near $600 BILLION. It is readily apparent that he has backtracked on promises for social security and for debt management. Some could not be avoided (recession) - but we aren't in a recession now, and the deficit is worse than ever in absolute terms. Shouldn't we be paying off the debt now? If you think Bush is any better than Clinton on cronies, you're completely delusional.