thunder wrote:
On Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:32:06 -0400, H the K wrote:


Being pretty much a fiscal conservative, I definitely don't like the
level of debt we have. 60% GDP seems pretty scary to me, but we are
not alone. Canada, Germany, France, all have a slightly higher
percentage, but what I find astounding is Japan, 170% GDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...by_public_debt

Much of the new debt is for cleaning up the messes Bush left behind via
nonfeasance, malfeasance, or misfeasance.

Frankly, I don't blame Bush for the state of the economy. I think
Presidents get too much credit, and too much blame for economies. It is,
after all, a free market. However, I'm old school. There are two
reasons for deficit spending, to fight a war, and to fight a recession.
I give Obama credit for being bold in his dealing with the economic
collapse. Now that the economy is coming around, hopefully, Obama will
show himself to be a fiscal conservative.

Why Reagan, and the two Bushes were deficit spending, I can't say, but
bankrupting the government does tend to put social spending on hold.

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html


One of the goals of the Reagan admin was to put the kabash on "social"
spending. It succeeded.