Glenn McCoy by Glenn McCoy

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  1. fritzoid

    fritzoid said, 2 months ago

    Republicans only care about deficits when there’s a Democrat in office. Deficits are not “coming” they’re HERE, and they’ve BEEN here for every recent Administration except Clinton.

    You can’t tie down a Banjo Man.

  2. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Republicans not only didn’t care about deficits for eight-years, they turned the budget surpluses they inherited into soaring deficits.

    Halliburton, Blackwater, KBR and Cheney made out nicely though.

  3. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 2 months ago

    Boo hoo libs. Congress in the 90’s gave us the surplus not any sitting President.

  4. nomad2112

    nomad2112 said, 2 months ago

    I really admire the youthful mentality of the Bush Blamers, “Georgie got to blow trillions how come Barry doesn’t?”

  5. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    ^ reminds me of the maxim about when the facts aren’t on your side, argue the law, except in this case it should be “when the facts aren’t on your side, argue partisanship.”

    Fact: Bush inherited budget surplus from Clinton

  6. Jim

    Jim said, 2 months ago

    Ah yes . Deficits are already here . He should perhaps say ” Inflation is coming ! ” lol

  7. Loco80

    Loco80 said, 2 months ago

    Just a thought about the budget implications…Bush did inherit a budget surplus, however, the attacks of 9/11/01 did have a tremendous impact on the national financial situation, and did initiate the deficit. I am also under the inclination that the financial woes were worldwide, not just national. The current and future anticipated deficits for the next four years are projected to be 10-fold the years of Mr Bush. This was from the AP article published in my city’s newspaper. Sorry, I don’t know how to add a link here.

  8. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Sorry, Loco80. While I can see how 9/11 had economic repercussions, I don’t believe that killed the surplus (or, as a number of Republicans like to remind us, “projected surplus”). Rather, it was the budget busting $1.35 trillion tax cut that Bush signed (before 9/11 even occurred).

    Alan Greenspan told Bush that the tax cuts needed to be matched with spending cuts in order to preserve a balanced budget. But the President insisted that the revenue would just come pouring in, negating the need for spending cuts that would have made him less popular. So the makings of tremendous deficits preceded the terrorist attacks.

  9. Loco80

    Loco80 said, 2 months ago

    So what you are telling me is that the promises of Mr Obama prior to his election about tax cuts were either bovine feces or that he knowingly and willingly is duplicating the efforts of Mr Bush, enforcing his approval of the ecomonic policy of the prior administration.

  10. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    No, that’s not what I’m saying Loco80. Obama campaigned on raising overall tax revenues by phasing out the Bush tax cuts for those who make over $250K (the vast majority of said cuts). Any promised cuts for folks making under the threshold would be more than paid for by those that would phase out anyway in 2010.

    He carefully avoided campaigning on a “raising taxes” platform by using the language of “allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire”. It’s essentially the same thing, though.

    So Obama campaigned on the opposite of the Bush tax plan.

  11. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Loco, to buttress what tpenna wrote. Bush enacted two more tax cuts after 9/11, which his own Treasury Secretary advised against saying it would be fiscally irresponsible to initiate while the nation was at war. Bush proceeded with the massive tax cut to the wealthy and fired his Treasury Secy, Paul O’Neill. The second tax cut reduced taxes on capital gains, dividends and investment income, things the average working middle class American is not affected by.

    Obama pledged to end the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000/yr, and after the economy tanked, he talked more about letting them expire. It remains to be seen what will happen, if they expire or are extended.

  12. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 2 months ago

    And Clinton inherited a growing economy from Bush Sr and was losing it during the last year of White House occupancy. Again–it was Congress in the mid 90’s that provided for “surplus.”

  13. GNWachs

    GNWachsGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    With due respect I cannot believe the economic naivety of some here.

    You run a retail store and thingamajigs are $10 and you sell 1 million. Cost $5. You CUT the price to $8 and sell 10 million. You have just made the equivalent statement if we didn’t cut the price look at how much more profit we would have made.

    The Bush tax cuts generated billions and billions in more tax income revenue than anything the Dems dreamed of. Look up the figures, because of the cuts more investments, more jobs and more tax dollars. That was what was planned and what was accomplished. You people are way too smart for that ridiculous argument.

  14. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 2 months ago

    They are not naive GN, they’re just plain biased.

  15. 5639

    5639 said, 2 months ago

    Loco80, don’t blame 9/11 for the Bush deficits! Blame the engineers of 9/11:

    George W. Bush: Creating the perfect alibi in Florida while continuing to read a children’s book and gazing off into space on camera after the Secret Service tells him the second tower has been hit but later blabs that he saw the first plane hit WTC 2 on television

    Cheney: Command NORAD to stand down

    Rumsfeld: Manage minor cruise missile debris on Pentagon lawn

    DoD/CIA: Radio control military planes to hit WTC 1 and 2 and explode a plane in Pennsylvania air space and fire a cruise missile from a B52 bomber into the freshly reinforced side of the Pentagon that wipes out the dept that is looking into the missing $1.1 trillion dollars Rumsfeld announces one day earlier

    And the accessories to 9/11:

    Marvin P. Bush: WTC security pass to install the thermite before in the weeks before 9/11

    CIA: Contract the controlled demolition of WTC 1, 2, 7

    George H.W. Bush: Head the White House command center to make sure the bin Ladden family gets out of the country safely and for over all coordination of the false flag operation

    Larry Silverstein: Insider and $4.55 billion insurance fraud recipient and blabs about WTC 7 that they had to “pull it”

    FBI: Make sure security camera footage from all buildings surrounding Pentagon are confiscated and not released to the public so they don’t see that it was a cruise missile that hit the Pentagon

    Giuliani: Make sure the NYC crime scene debris is recycled to China ASAP and supervise the gold and silver bullion removal from the WTC basement so the search for bodies which slows down the removal of evidence can be ended. Oops we seem to be missing $160 billion in gold

    Giuliani: Make a sweetheart deal with the untested NYFD radios that gets you a nice little kick-back but leaves firefighters stranded in the WTC bldgs because their radios don’t work properly

  16. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Thanks for your input, GNWachs. I always appreciate your perspective here. With all due respect, though, that is not the story I have heard from the economists and economic journalists I respect. You may argue that the voices I listen to are biased. While I would disagree, it would seem foolish to say that the same argument could not be leveled against your own information.

    As a matter of fact, your claim contradicts the judgment of President Reagan who eventually raised taxes in an attempt to bring the deficit under control.

    And HOWGOZIT, you can see why your comments tend not to be appreciated here. Whereas GNWachs argues his position forcefully, articulately, and respectfully, your comments tend to be mean-spirited and dismissive (this latest being more mild than usual for you).

  17. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    And 5639, your conspiratorial comments are the worst of all. There is no room for such “Truther” claims in reasoned debate. I believe you have other websites and chat rooms for that sort of thing.

  18. Redeemd

    Redeemd said, 2 months ago

    Let’s give credit where it’s due:

    The surplus of the 90’s was the result of a Democrat President, a Republican-controlled Congress, an Independent who made the deficit an issue (Ross Perot) and a “tech boom” in which investment poured into America from around the world.

    Sad thing is, this will probably never happen again in our lifetime.

  19. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 2 months ago

    Could really care less tpenna. When you start calling out some of the left wing remarks perhaps I’ll take you seriously.

  20. GNWachs
  21. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Yeah, I knew you’d go there, HOWGOZIT. I should point out that those of us who choose civility over personal sniping receive our fair share of insults as well. But somehow we rise above it to behave ourselves. You really tell people something about yourself when you fail to do the same.

    Just so you don’t think I’m trying to make myself out to be better than you, I’ll say instead that GNWachs and cdward are better people than you. Try to follow their examples instead of those “left wing” commenters you decry.

  22. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    GNWachs, from what I’ve read over at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the CBO specifically stated that the increased tax receipts were not a result of the Bush tax cuts or increased economic activity.

    Rather, the CBO (whose figures are quoted in the Free Republic link you provided) says that the increased receipts were due to higher inflation. It stated that “increases [in the revenue projections] occur mainly because of a rise in projected GDP, which derives from higher prices in the economy, not real economic activity.”

    Here’s the link, in case you want to read it further: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=986.

  23. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 2 months ago

    Fair enough, I like cdward, BCS. fennec and respect their views. But don’t tell me lalas, senor, and some others “rise above” and behave. At least you did not compare me to Striper. I have said before I say/print things just to get someone’s goat and see the response..

  24. GNWachs

    GNWachsGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    The real problem is politicians want to have it both ways. For every penny of increased tax receipts they somehow seem to mange to spend that plus more. If anyone, and Bush was a terrible terrible example, had cut spending we would not be in this predicament.

    My problem with Obama is facing unbelievable debt and deficit he has manged to break every spending record in existence.

    In reality after 8 years of Republicans the Democrats said it is our turn and loaded spending bills with every single one of their pet projects. Our grandchildren will pay for that folly.

  25. cdward

    cdward said, 2 months ago

    GNW, first, did you notice? We’re role models! Woo hoo!

    Second, I realize you and many think Obama’s approach to the economic crisis is the wrong one. What I don’t know is how you would have approached it. Care to enlighten?

  26. tpenna

    tpennaGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    No, HOWGOZIT. You don’t come close to striper77. I hope we never have to bear with more than one like him. One is too much, as it is.

    And you’re right. Many other liberals don’t “rise above” and behave all the time. But we can all try to do better than that. And I have called out both of the people you mentioned on more than one occasion. You said you’d take me seriously when I did that, so take me seriously.

    And yeah, cdward. It’s probably no big secret that you are one of the ones who sets the bar here for courteous and engaging discourse.

    Sorry I’ve gotten preachy, folks. I just really enjoy it when actual ideas are discussed, and I can’t stand it when the level of discourse declines.

  27. GNWachs

    GNWachsGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    cdward

    I read the position paper of Cato on the economic crises. They are a libertarian think tank to which I belong. Google them and read something from people with knowledge. In this field I have very very little knowledge.

  28. David

    DavidGenius_badge said, 2 months ago

    Yeah, but that’s not what they want to hear. They just want to hear the warm fuzzies from their yes-men, like many politicians do.