I've got to say Thanks Mom for inspiring this one!

The Truth about Tax and Spend!!

Clinton raised taxes but worked hard to reduce the national debt and balanced the budget with the extra money he took. He told us all that reducing the budget and spending would take work and sacrifice- do you remember him speaking to the American people and saying these things? I do. Bush has given tax breaks yes, with the biggest tax breaks to the top earners at a disproportionate rate, but he has greatly, hugely, massively increased the national debt. What most analysts are now saying is that more intelligent investment is needed at home to continue to compete in the future. But I think the idea of the tax and spend 'liberal' was largely a republican campaign invention, also at times a rather racist invention based off what whites saw as money unfairly going to blacks through welfare. The fact is this "tax and spend" description has not applied to democrats if you look at the real numbers– but in fact to republicans. Obama is much more conservative economically and has much more serious an economic understanding than McCain. Obama's tax plan actually reduces taxes for more people and he is focused on reducing corporate loopholes- the real reason corporations pay less in taxes. He would raise taxes only on the richest yes- as compensation for all the breaks given by Bush to his "base" of supporters. While we, the lower and middle class, would see more take home income according to every independent analysis I've seen. McCain's plan continues to give bigger cuts than average to the super rich. As far as medicare/medicaid spending go- most cost to benefit studies put these programs at about equal in cost to private insurance companies. The problem I think is expensive medical care in general is costing a lot more, doctors are prescribing more expensive treatments and drugs on average, and more and more people are needing these programs.


National debt: (the amount our government owes to other countries), which undercuts future spending and programs like Social Security, and effects the economy in many ways. It seems it is always increasing but,...

National Debt under George W. Bush has increased by over 4 trillion! Not since Reagan and the first Bush has there been an increase like this. And never before in the history of this country. Clinton nearly held down the national debt and made a balanced budget mandatory but still National Debt under Clinton did continue to increase- just not nearly as much.

Total national debt now at $9,645,755 ,000,000-trillion (4 trillion increase under Bush and mainly from war in Iraq)
at the end of 2000 it was at $5,662.216,000,000-trillion (1.5 trillion increase under Clinton)
Under Clinton:
National debt started at the end of 1994 at $4,177,009,000,000-trillion
Under Reagan and first Bush
National debt started at the beginning of 1981 at only $904,073-billion (nearly 4 trillion increase under Reagan/Bush)

Almost the entire, soon to be 10 trillion dollars of national debt came from the last 3 republican presidents.

The actual national debt records I took this from can be seen here- http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/mspd.htm



What Bill Clinton actually did do in office if you doubt:
-Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
-Earned Income Tax Credit 1994
-The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of August 1993, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. It cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses, and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers (to offset Reagan cuts). Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years. The bill, which both raised taxes and cut government spending, has been credited as the major cause behind the deficit reduction and eventual surpluses during the 1990s, by sources such as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
--Then in 1994 people like Newt Gringrich came on the scene with the Conservative Coalition's "Republican Revolution" of evangelicals and nothing happened because of stalemates for several years.
-Iraq Liberation Act 1998- Clinton Recognized Sadam Hussein as a problem and sought economic and joint international political means to limit his power and bring about a regime change. (This was way before 9/11 and the Iraq War- remember?)


Here's a somewhat "liberal" biased representation of what I've said above about national debt. The person who made this went a little far in the graphical representation of his point, no doubt trying to graphically counter the prevailing lies of republicans about "liberal tax and spend" presidents, but the numbers are accurate and it makes the point clearly. In his first 4 years in office G.W. Bush increased national debt spending $96 billion more than Bill Clinton did in his entire 8 years!! And don't try and say it was the republicans in congress that held down spending cause that is a load- not a single republican even voted for Clinton's Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993- you know, that policy that Clinton was fighting for that brought the budget down and mandated fiscal responsibility to the tax and spend republicans? Remember that? So what did George W. Bush do in his second term, to make up for his record spending, to reduce spending and national debt? He continued to spend at record levels- while cutting taxes to gain popularity, and so he could say he cut taxes- further increasing our national debt because, well, we are the top dog and he don't have to think about paying our bills so let's run up that credit card debt- just like he ran those businesses into the ground- and our economy!