*It's certainly true that, way, way back in the nineties, key parts of Clinton's team were fiscal hawks. Even then, however, folks like Bob Reich were hell-bent on infrastructure investments.

Do you have any recollection about who won and who lost the fight in the Clinton administration about whether the administration would fight for deficit reduction or an infrastructure investment stimulus package? In particular, do you have any recollection as to whether Robert Reich wrote a critical memoir of the Clinton administration called Locked In The Cabinet in which he joked that he hopes to come back as the bond market in his next life so that he gets whatever he wants?

Do you have any recollection as to whether Democrats took any political risks in the early 90s for the purpose of deficit reduction? Does the name Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky ("Bye-bye, Margie") ring a bell?

This all actually happened. You really ought to remember it.

As Vice President Cheney said, Reagan proved that deficits do not matter.

So why should we worry about the Medicare and other obligations. the republicans have demonstrated that we can finance them with tax cuts.

What is good for the gander can also be good for the goose.

so it looks like starve the beast is going to be as big a policy failure as invading Iraq.

Dan's got Reich mixed up with Rubin. Everybody does that.

Or is he contrasting Rubin with Reich? In which case, never mind.

The Clinton administration did nobly restrain itself from blowing a lot of money on new spending programs-- in the same sense that I've nobly restrained myself from cheating on my girlfriend with Salma Hayek.

Ross Perot?

I do notice something that perhaps an economist could explain.
Why would Cheney run up such great profits and then pull them offshore unless he expected that the Great American War Profiteering Ripoff would destroy the currency used as the mainstay of international finance ?
And if that is valid - the humbling of America - who is to benefit ?

I don't understand. If there were budget surpluses and controlled spending during the Clinton years, then why did the national debt increase by $1.5 trillion from $4.167 trillion to $5.662 trillion?

The national debt increased under Clinton because Clinton inherited a budget that was out of balance. During the Clinton years, federal spending grew at an average rate of 1.5% per year after inflation, which was slower than the growth of the economy and (more important for the purposes of this discussion), slower than the growth of federal revenues. As a result, the deficits gradually decreased during the Clinton years and the budget eventually went into surplus.

Then Bush came into office, cut taxes, and increased spending. During Bush's first term, spending grew at 4.6% per year after inflation. According to White House spokesman Tony Fratto, as quoted in today's New York Times, that level of growth was what Bush wanted: "The Republican leadership in the House and the Senate kept to our top number."

As a result of the Bush policies, the national debt today is $9.016 billion. That's a $3.3 billion increase during Bush's time in office.