nanna said:
Say what you will, but Clinton was one of the most -fiscally- conservative Presidents we've had for some time. Bush's economic policies scare the hell out of me, and, it seems, my neighbors, too.
Well, Clinton's plan worked. Clinton didn't cut anything. He handed welfare over to the states so the Dems couldn't be blamed (as a whole) that _they_ cut welfare.
Bring a president, Clinton showed the world how it is ok to lie about anything and everything. I honestly believe that by having someone with these values in the White House made the folks at Sun Micro, Enron, Corning, JDS Uniphase, figure that telling lies about income wasn't lying, it was just another method of accounting. The stocks go high, very very very very very high. Millions of folks selling and day trading. Tons of money being made, the government gets it's almost 30% cut of billions of dollars.
The truth comes out, tech companies fall and fall hard. People who purchased stocks high start taking loses (they can only write-off so much though). Idiots who purchased company stock in their 401(k)s find themselves with no retirement nest egg. Tax income falls and falls hard. The tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars these companies were donating to charity and the like quickly drys up...almost over night. In the end we were left with more folks who needed services and more private agencies who needed funding. All the while, when the tax income was like a fire hose, government hired more cops, more firefighters, more street workers, etc. etc.. Everything got bigger. When the hose shut off, things stayed the same, at least in my neck of the woods. Recently, a city near me finally state that layoffs for cops and firefighters might be coming. San Fran residents voted down two tax measures and the mayor has said he might have to layoff a lot of workers.
Truth be told, under Clinton, the economy grew on a wave of lies. All we need now is a housing bust and this country can get back to normal. If housing prices were to come back down by 20-30%, folks would be able to make it.