Text 12147, 101 rader
Skriven 2008-03-09 17:32:20 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
  Kommentar till text 12146 av Jeff Bowman (1:229/500)
Ärende: Bush Vetoes Waterboarding Bill
======================================
Hello Jeff!

09 Mar 08 16:29, you wrote to me:

 >> Oh please..

 >> He was in the right place at the right time..

 >> The technology and dotcom booms happened not because of him but
 >> happened anyway.

 JB> I've heard the "right place at the right time" thing before.  I don't
 JB> see why people just can't give the administration the credit they
 JB> deserve.

Not for the "booms"..

Hell, give more credit to Tim Berners Lee if anything else or even Vincent
Cerf?

Anyone could have been President during the 1990's and these things still would
have happened.

 JB>   It wasn't merely the economy that was in such good shape,
 JB> but the government had a huge surplus of money in general from much
 JB> more appropriate spending.  In case you forgot, there was a Republican
 JB> congress in there for a while during his terms, too. They also
 JB> probably deserve some of the credit that you apparently aren't willing
 JB> to chalk up to anything other than "good circumstances".

Which only proves that Clinton didnt do anything spectacular...

Well he signed NAFTA which his parties candidates seem to be bemoaning now,
even his wife.

Like I said he was in the right place at the right time..

You can give him credit for presiding over such prosperity but nothing he did
triggered it, unless of course you believe his Vice President really did invent
the Internet.

 JB> Also, the dot coms come and go, which includes during Bush's terms
 JB> where the internet really started to swell in homes. They influence
 JB> the economy, but in no way single-handedly like you seem to give them
 JB> credit for.  And various technologies have been booming in spurts
 JB> since the late 70's, but none of those administrations got the
 JB> government in as good a shape as the Clinton era.

Including the recession that Bush inherited as a result of the bubble burst?

 JB> Bush came in and started chewing on that surplus of money before 9/11
 JB> even happened,

Oh yes, that tax rebate that drove many liberals insane.

Guess you dont have a opinion on the rebates we are fixing to get since it had
alot of liberal hands in it!

 JB>  and then completely brought us back into the largest
 JB> debt this country has seen in a long long time.

I'll agree with you there that up til recently, Bush never met a spending bill
he didnt like.

 JB>   Even if we got
 JB> another Bill Clinton for 8 years, it'd probably take another Bill
 JB> Clinton afterwards to bring us back to where we were.  We're going to
 JB> be digging our way back out of this for a long time, no matter how you
 JB> look at it.

It doesnt take a Clinton.

However, putting the Iraq war aside, the so called surplus was spent before
2003 as funds were diverted to 9-11 recovery, Afghanistan and all the
infrastructure they put in place as a result, such as TSA, DHS et al.

Still ignoring Iraq, Katrina didnt help.

Acknowledging Iraq, yes a big part of this deficit.

 JB> I don't know about you, but I really don't like China having such a
 JB> huge influence on American economy by owning and buying up so much of
 JB> our debt. They could single-handedly crush America if they really
 JB> wanted to risk messing up global economy for such a goal.  Bush keeps
 JB> going on about energy independence, and while that's a nice goal, we
 JB> need economic independence first.

Will you concede that it wasnt Bush that took the dollar off of the gold
standard?

The National Debt has been around since I have existed, I turn 45 this
September, I do not expect it to go away as an issue in my lifetime and neither
should you in yours.

==
Ross
Fidonet Feeds Or Fidonet In Your Newsreader: http://www.easternstar.info
E-mail: ross(at)cassell(dot)us | Blogs/Other Places: http://links.cassell.us
... A govt big enough to give, is big enough to take.
--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-30413
 * Origin: The Eastern Star - Spartanburg, SC USA (1:123/456)