Alan Grayson Nails It !!! - Pass This Meme Around !!!

Just a moment ago, Grayson (Appearing on The Ed Show) said (paraphrasing), "We were seven years away from paying off the National Debt completely under Clinton."

:wow:

Until a Republican became President, started two wars, and provided a giant tax-cut for the wealthy (My words).

Please remind all supposed deficit hawks of this at EVERY opportunity.

:kick:

soooo true.

Love it!

Or should I say they blew it on the wars and those tax breaks for the wealthy?

Damn it.

:grr:

could begin the assault on Social Security, and the paucity of safety nets for the poor. But all that money has ended up in somebodies pockets....I wonder whos.

:applause:

politician I've ever sent money to, and I don't even live in his state.
Need a lot more like him!

The time is becoming riper and riper.

He's already the congressman from his district. Send him money.

Presidential Primary. President Grayson is what I am aiming for.

When Clinton left office our National Debt was almost six trillion dollars. Our Budget Surplus was $275 billion dollars. Multiply that times seven years and it doesn't come anywhere near paying the six trillion dollars..It is good we were beginning to pay down the Debt and in fact they even turned off the Debt Clock for the first time since Reagan, but it was going to be a lot more than seven years to get into the black.

maybe there was an element of exponentiality to achieve that goal???

Glassman had it at 2026 in 1997...



Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/budget/stories/op071597.htm

Notice that THIS conservative thinks paying off the debt is a dangerous thing...

And... Mr. Glassman has been wrong before...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K1AZEFSKL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

:shrug:

:hi:

http://money.cnn.com/1999/06/28/economy/clinton/

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - President Clinton on Monday proposed paying off the national debt by 2015 after issuing a new budget outlook that adds $1 trillion more to the overall budget surplus over the next 15 years.

The president, who plans to unveil a major Medicare reform initiative on Tuesday, said he wants to use the surplus to add decades of solvency to the Social Security and Medicare systems, which are otherwise expected to go broke as the "Baby Boom" generation retires.

"If we maintain our fiscal discipline, using the surplus to pay down the debt and using the savings to strengthen Social Security, America will entirely pay off the national debt by 2015," Clinton told reporters on the White House lawn.

Clinton said the budget surplus for fiscal year 1999 would be a higher-than-expected $99 billion, compared to an earlier projection of $79 billion. For fiscal 2000, which begins Oct. 1, Clinton sees the budget surplus rising to $142.5 billion from an earlier projection of $117.3 billion.

"Improvements in the outlook since February have added $179 billion to the projected budget surplus over five years, half a trillion over 10 years, and a trillion over 15 years," Clinton said.

In February, the White House forecast a five-year surplus of about $700 million, a 10-year surplus of about $2.41 trillion and a 15-year surplus of about $4.47 trillion.


(much more at the link)

This says it all, doesn't it?

We had no debt reduction, even in Clinton's best years. We INCREASED the national debt, even when we had a budget surplus.


Fiscal Budget Year Ending Total Debt Net change
FY1993 09/30/1993 $4.411488 trillion
FY1994 09/30/1994 $4.692749 trillion $281.26 billion
FY1995 09/29/1995 $4.973982 trillion $281.23 billion
FY1996 09/30/1996 $5.224810 trillion $250.83 billion
FY1997 09/30/1997 $5.413146 trillion $188.34 billion
FY1998 09/30/1998 $5.526193 trillion $113.05 billion
FY1999 09/30/1999 $5.656270 trillion $130.08 billion
FY2000 09/29/2000 $5.674178 trillion $17.91 billion
FY2001 09/28/2001 $5.807463 trillion $133.29 billion


This is accomplished via the following sleight of hand:

Fiscal Year End Date Claimed Surplus Public Debt Intra-govHoldings Total National Debt
FY1997 09/30/1997 $3.789667T $1.623478T $5.413146T
FY1998 09/30/1998 $69.2B $3.733864T(increase$55.8B) $1.792328T(increase$168.9B) $5.526193T(increase$113B)
FY1999 09/30/1999 $122.7B $3.636104T(increase$97.8B) $2.020166T(increase$227.8B) $5.656270T(increase$130.1B)
FY2000 09/29/2000 $230.0B $3.405303T(increase$230.8B) $2.268874T(increase$248.7B) $5.674178T(increase$17.9B)
FY2001 09/28/2001 $3.339310T(increase$66.0B) $2.468153T(increase$199.3B) $5.807463T(increase$133.3B)

Total national debt is intra-government holdings, PLUS public debt. Borrowing (against social security for instance) via intra-governmental holdings can have the illusion of lowering the public debt, but the total national debt increases.

We were lied to.

Edit: shit I can't get that second table to format in a readable manner. Source is here:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

The $275 billion would have been additional payments on the principal balance

The Debt was growing and Clinton said he wanted to use the surplus to strengthen Social Security and Medicare although he didmanage to stop the growth of the Debt, he did not manage to reduce it by all that much. Then along came Bush* and doubled the Debt. Bush* and the Republicans actually added more to the National Debt than all other
Administrations combined....

so, they do reduce the balance of the overall debt.

The USA was spending more than it was bringing in. It is like paying the minimum payment on your credit card while still charging up lots of goodies. The Debt was rising until his last two years. To eliminate the Debt in seven years as was suggested we would have had to apply a trillion dollars a year of surplus money. He had already said he wanted to use the surplus to shore up Social Security and Medicare. I only wish Gore had been elected so we could have found out. Imagine if our Debt was eliminated? Right now we pay more in Interest on our Debt than all other social programs combined except for social security and Medicare. All that money could go back into our Nation. Into our schools and hospitals and we could provide universal health care for all. However Gore did not get into office and the exact opposite of what would have been good for America came to pass.

Because intragovernmental holdings were increased. Total debt is Public Debt plus Intragovernmental Holdings.

The Government can borrow against things it owns, like Social Security, and use that to pay down public debt. But it doesn't reduce the total debt.

K&R!

by one of the best Democrats ever....

HST!

George Bush, the (-$10 trillion) dollar man.

on Senate floor --

How about Grayson/Franken 2012?

K & R

The corrupt and evil BushCo Regime came along and bankrupted us thanks to Katherine Harris and the Supremes.

And everyone nows that "new" is much betterer than "old." So they must be right... plus if we don't curve social expending how are we going to be able to afford all that war to make us ever so safe?

I still love his line, "The party of no are well on their way to becoming the party of nobody."

The MSM still perpetuates the myth of the tax and spend democrats and way too many people buy that line.

Grayson is a Godsend, he tells it like it is minus the sugarcoating. We need more like him and fewer Thomas Dodd types. Or Harry Reid types, him calling Obama too timid was rich, he was correct in what he said but Harry is about as tame as you can be.

:thumbsup:

:kick:

"The Republican health care plan: don't get sick." It gives me a chuckle every day and also serves to remind me to watch what I eat!

K&R

So it's good to pay off the debt?

President Obama just hired the guy who helped Clinton achieve a surplus.

/nt :shrug:

...some of the projections bandied about by the Clinton administration were a little shakey. IIRC, they depended on continuing current trends, and so effectively assumed the tech bubble would continue, even when it started to show signs of faltering.

Still, we'd still be in much better shape if His Squandership hadn't been Selected.

:fistbump:

and Al Franken the Senate majority leader in January. What do you think?
And both of them are freshmen in their respective houses. That's new blood
for you!

Particularly if Bernie Sanders was POTUS and Howard Dean VPOTUS! :woohoo:

The GOP would have to change its mascot to a cockroach, 'cause that's how they'd be acting when the giant light of reason and logic was shined on them...

I like Grayson to. I would like to ask you all what you know about his background?
Do you know where he got all his money? Do you know who he was representing as a
lawyer?
He is a good guy now, but his past is repulsive. Look it up!
I would like to think people change, thats why I send him money to.
Also,I wish he wouldn't support Israel.

this statement will vanish into the right wing talk machine just like everything else he says.

the media wind tunnel will make sure this gets no further coverage.

The things that matter always vanish.

Here's the post:

“The Ed Show” is up more than any other cable news show among A25-54, growing 28 percent!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8632337

...........

I think, believe it or not, that more sheep are waking up! With the talk of raising the SS age and the risk of cutting medicare/medicaid it is becoming even to them the issue of what they really do get from the government. And some are finally realizing that it was the Democrat's who gave them these benefits to begin with. It can't hurt to have it out there and by the way I have noticed many DU post on google when you search for any topic. It does make a difference IMHO.

Grayson gets elected to the Senate (not necessary, but it would add a lot of credibility) and we see a Sherrod Brown/Allan Grayson ticket in 2016.

...the GOP continues to portray itself as the "fiscally responsible" party. What a crock.

the public continues to buy it. It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid the average American voter seems to be.

They spent it buying votes from warmongers, the rich, and the idiots who support them.