You're viewing a single thread.
Sure, bad things have happened every time we’ve tried tariffs.
But we have to do something to balance the budget!
The federal government has achieved fiscal balance (even surpluses) in just seven periods since 1776, bringing in enough revenue to cover all of its spending during 1817-21, 1823-36, 1852-57, 1867-73, 1880-93, 1920-30 and 1998-2001. We have also experienced six depressions. They began in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929.
So old Billy Clinton was the only president to balance the budget without causing a depression? Interesting.
The one exception occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the dot-com and housing bubbles fueled a consumption binge that delayed the harmful effects of the Clinton surpluses until the Great Recession of 2007-09.
Heh, you can't primarily blame Clinton for the thing that W had 8 years to fix. Have you watched The Big Short?
Oh, no problem then! The AI bubble will carry us through far enough until it all comes crashing down in... I want to say 2027?
Yes... The AI bubble. Which is definitely still a thing. Definitely.
- tugs nervously at collar *
I'd say this is basically just the result of neoliberalism, something Clinton contributed to, but not Clinton alone.
It was very much a bipartisan economic policy that started from Carter, put on overdrive with Reagan, and continued into our economic policies today.
Its the economy, stupid.