Bob Schaffer: “last year, the Treasury Department announced that the Federal budget was in surplus for the first time since 1969. Only…”

“last year, the Treasury Department announced that the Federal budget was in surplus for the first time since 1969. Only 3 short years ago, the President had submitted a budget with $200 billion deficits as far as the eye could see, as many will recall. What happened? There are a lot of Americans who do not care much who gets the credit for the current fine state of our economy and then tend to take the President at his word when he takes the credit for the budget surplus we have at last achieved. But it is important to understand how we got here so that we may continue to a path of sound economic policy in the future. When the country was faced with large, chronic deficits in the beginning of the 1990s, Congress faced a choice. To cut the deficit, lawmakers essentially had two choices: cut spending or raise taxes. President Clinton and his liberal allies in the Congress naturally chose to raise taxes. Congress at the time was still under the control of the Democrats, and so President Clinton was able to pass the largest tax increase in our history. Republicans, on the other hand, wanted to reduce the deficit by cutting spending. Republicans believed government is too big, way too big, and they believe Washington wastes too much of our money.”