Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Yosemite, Congress & Sequestering

As Steve wrote, no President could really be called an extremist, especially when they win re-election. The majority opinion is, by definition, normal. If normal appears extreme, it's because the viewer is looking at reality from an extreme position, far right or far left.

As for fiscal irresponsibility, Reagan and Bush Jr. are clearly the champs at this, despite the rhetoric. Both of them reversed a positive trend and put us on a steep trajectory of increasing debt. One quote says it all, by Dick Cheney, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." That is the epitome of fiscal irresponsibility in my opinion.

Actually, I defend Reagan for using Keynesian economic theory to jump start the economy in the early 80's with deficit spending (tax cuts and military build up). Unfortunately, he didn't adjust course once the economy got moving. That is the tricky part, to start paying down the debt once the economy recovers. In the end, he tripled the national debt in 8 years from about $1 trillion to $3 trillion.

I also defend Reagan for being flexible on taxes, both raising and lower them as he saw fit. He tinkered with capitol gains, income rates, payroll taxes, and deductions going both up and down. With such a flexible approach to tax policy, he could never win a nomination in today's Republican party. Ironically, as Governor of California he proposed the largest tax increase in state history.

The best chance we ever had at paying down our debt was at the end of the Clinton administration. The surplus in fiscal year 2000 was $237 billion—the third consecutive surplus and the largest surplus ever. In 2001, Bush's budget estimated that there would be a $5.6 trillion surplus over the next ten years. Instead of staying the course and paying down the national debt, he doubled the debt from $5.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion.

So if you're worried about national debt, look at the champs who got us where we are today. It's absurd that the obstructions are crying about the debt while preventing a balanced approach to the problem - the only approach that actually worked in recent history.