I grow weary of hearing about Bill Clinton's "budget surpluses" that George W. Bush supposedly squandered. When was the last time you remember the federal government collecting more money than it spent? It last happened during the Jefferson administration. That's why we have budget deficits and the budget deficit clock. The government always has to borrow money.
During Kenny Guinn's last term as governor of Nevada, however, we saw what would happen if there actually were a surplus. Guinn gave money back to the people, in the form of a DMV registration rebate. Mine totaled about $75, which basically paid the registration that year of one of my vehicles.
Bill Clinton's budget assumed no changes in revenues or expenditures into the future, which is absolute foolishness. Government, like entropy, always increases unless acted upon purposely by an outside force. Add unexpected disasters like fires, floods and hurricanes to costs of combat in Kosovo and Somalia, and the fact that Clinton expanded every welfare program, and it was not possible for there to ever be a budget surplus under the Clinton administration.
Without spending cuts, real cuts, not decreases in expansion from 11% requested by an agency to 4% increase allowed by the Bush administration, budget surpluses remain outside the realm of possibility. If there were any, the only honorable thing for a leader to do would be to pay down the excess debt incurred by his predecessors or refund the money equally to all taxpayers from whom government stole it.
Clinton was a liar then. He remains a liar now.
During Kenny Guinn's last term as governor of Nevada, however, we saw what would happen if there actually were a surplus. Guinn gave money back to the people, in the form of a DMV registration rebate. Mine totaled about $75, which basically paid the registration that year of one of my vehicles.
Bill Clinton's budget assumed no changes in revenues or expenditures into the future, which is absolute foolishness. Government, like entropy, always increases unless acted upon purposely by an outside force. Add unexpected disasters like fires, floods and hurricanes to costs of combat in Kosovo and Somalia, and the fact that Clinton expanded every welfare program, and it was not possible for there to ever be a budget surplus under the Clinton administration.
Without spending cuts, real cuts, not decreases in expansion from 11% requested by an agency to 4% increase allowed by the Bush administration, budget surpluses remain outside the realm of possibility. If there were any, the only honorable thing for a leader to do would be to pay down the excess debt incurred by his predecessors or refund the money equally to all taxpayers from whom government stole it.
Clinton was a liar then. He remains a liar now.
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