I guess if stating the facts and not living on the "Don't look at the facts river of Denile) is rooting against America... I just don't think reasonable people will agree that it is.
How about helping America by getting into the game with some help instead of just spending us up and saying... Oh, that's OK... if it's Republican deficit spending it's GRRREAT!
Column from 11/14/07 The Columbus Dispatch (one of Ohio's largest newspapers which is well known for being very purple (not red or blue) in the positions it takes)
In pursuing fiscal restraint, President Clinton didn't push very hard for many Democratic programs. He left a budget surplus that President Bush and the Republican Congress blew through in about two minutes. Bush then proceeded to ram Republican priorities through a pliant Congress without ever worrying about how to pay for them. Who benefited from our fiscal discipline?
The complaint has merit, but in answer to the question of who benefited: The country did.
We now see the fruits of fiscal irresponsibility in today's economic turmoil. The sinking dollar reflects investor angst over America's deficits, which are the result of Republican passion for spending big, taxing too little and borrowing the difference.
The U.S. government borrows $800 billion a year, largely from foreigners. We are now in hock to the Chinese, and America is no longer master of its fate. Our econimic prestige has fallen so far that a single mischievous remark by a Chinese politician sent U.S. stocks plunging. He had suggested that his country start moving its money out of the dollar and into the stronger euro.
And so Democrats should be mighty proud that one of their first acts after winning majorities in Congress was to revive the pay-go budget rule, which requires lawmakers to offset the costs of legislation with tax increases or spending cuts. That means politicians have to find the money for new programs. Think about it: In the service of fiscal discipline, Democrats had agreed to trim their own ambitions.
