Back to unhealthy political commentary, I'd like to point out that Clinton benefited politically from several things that he had absolutely nothing to do with....

1) The "peace dividend" that allowed spending on the military to be lowered, however in typical Clinton style he did several things to fuck this up.... He went political with the base closing commission to garner favor with California voters and there have been no base closings since. He has overextended us on our foreign commitments and that's become a large drain on both military morale and the military budget. Finally, he's cut back too much and there will need to be a substantial increase in the military share of the budget to stem the current rate of loss of qualified personnel.

2) The wrap up of the Savings & Loan fiasco. By the time Clinton took over the government had stopped spending money buying up the failed Savings & Loans and was receiving income by selling the assets.

3) Alan Greenspan had cut rates 14 separate times trying to get the economy moving again and unlike this year he did almost all of it in 1/4 point increments. If he had just cut rates by 1 1/2 points to start with Clinton wouldn't have stood a chance.

4) Both houses of congress went to the Republicans who passed several tax changes (all derided as only benefiting the rich) which helped to free up investment capital and get the economy moving. If you don't believe me find out what the Dow closed at on Nov. 1, 1992, 1994 and 1995, you'll find little difference during Clinton's first two years and a marked jump once the congress shifted.

4a) The Republican congress' belief that the country should not run deficit budgets and their half hearted attempt to actually live up to that belief.

5) The Tech boom, this would have happened no matter who was in office and for several years it created a balloon of trillions of fictional dollars in the economy. The current bust is not Bush's fault but he'll be blamed for it nonetheless.



And for anyone who seriously believes that Bush will get us into WWIII, I suggest you look back at the Reagan years. There were millions of people in this country who believed the very same thing of him, a hell of a lot of them were in the press too, but what Ron managed to do was win the cold war.

"And isn't illegal to try and buy votes? How is this not what Dubya's doing?"

You consider giving the money back to the people who paid it in buying votes but don't consider government programs that take your money and give it to other people buying votes????


"I would rather be able to ask them to put it towards some gov't program instead of getting it back."

Personally, if my money is going to a worthy cause, I'd rather choose which one and avoid all the government middlemen. If you support a hospital why can't you just give them your money yourself? Why do you feel that any cause you support should also be supported by my tax dollars too?