Research notes: " deficits don't matter " - Dick Cheney
....press releases denouncing the Vice President for supporting tax cuts that contributed to short-term deficits but also helped the economy grow until the deficits shrank nearly away. Yet somehow none of those same voices are objecting now that the government is spending its way into deficits that are so large they dwarf any during peacetime in U.S. history. http://goo.gl/GK3qG
..former Vice President Cheney used to say deficits don't ... administration is doing to address some of those concerns. http://goo.gl/eg7lu
CBO site provides time line historic budget charts and reports.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government. It is a government agency that provides economic data to Congress.
http://www.cbo.gov/publications/
Publication by subject area
http://goo.gl/4O5GV
Taken from random notes: ignore org. authors opinion, figures are right or within a small margin of error +/- use CBO to validate if needed.
The first signs of impending trouble are the exploding budget deficits themselves. They began, of course, under the parlous economic stewardship of Ronald Reagan. Reagan cut the marginal tax rate on the wealthiest of Americans from 70% to 38%. He promised it would spur an orgy of investment and rocket the economy to new levels of production and prosperity. Instead, his supply side economics did the exact opposite. It produced the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
Output fell 2.2% in 1982 while budget deficits soared. When Reagan took office in 1981, the national debt stood at $995 billion. Twelve years later, by the end of George H.W. Bush's presidency, it had exploded to $4 trillion.
Bill Clinton reversed Reagan's course, raising taxes on the wealthy, and lowering them for the working and middle classes. This produced the longest sustained economic expansion in American history. Importantly, it also produced budgetary surpluses allowing the government to begin paying down the crippling debt begun under Reagan. In 2000, Clinton's last year, the surplus amounted to $236 billion. The forecast ten year surplus stood at $5.6 trillion. It was the last black ink America would see for decades, perhaps forever.
George W. Bush immediately reversed Clinton's policy in order to revive Reagan's, once again showering an embarrassment of riches on the already most embarrassingly rich, his base as he calls them. He ladled out some $630 billion in tax cuts to the top 1% of income earners.
Search string: George Bush $4 trillion
Search string: 1981 national debt $995 billion
Search string: Clinton surplus $236 billion
Search string: Congressional Budget Office Historical Budget
Search string: deficits don't matter Dick Cheney
Search string: Deficit spending doesn't matter if controlled
Forecast ten year surplus $5.6 trillion
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/15/david-axelrod/axelrod-claims-bush-saddled-obama-big-deficit/
Q: During the Clinton administration was the federal budget balanced? Was the federal deficit erased?
A: Yes to both questions, whether you count Social Security or not.
Full answer here: http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/during_the_clinton_administration_was_the_federal.html
or
Congressional Budget Office, "Historical Budget Data,"
http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf
Historical budget statistics
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf
Heritage Foundation's "Budget Chart Book"
a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/
Congress.org is a nonpartisan news and information Web site devoted to encouraging civic participation.
http://www.congress.org/issues
Office of Management and Budget
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/
Interesting article:
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2010/11/yes-government-bonds-add-to-private.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
