In 60 Richard Nixon said increased government expenditures meant raising taxes or increasing the national debt.
In 84 people wanted something simpler than raising taxes or increasing the national debt so they re-elected an actor as president.
In 92 Ross Perot told us Reagan's (and later Bush, and if people are stupid enough McCain's) "trickle down" economics, combined with an increasing national debt, don't work - unless you happen to be one of the wealthy few who benefit from corporate welfare and bailouts.
At the end of Bill Clinton's term, in 2000 the Congressional Budget Budget office projected a 2.2 trillion dollar surplus in the years 2001-2010. Republicans were worried that Democrats would spend it on things like healthcare, education, veterans benefits, and alternative energy research.
On September 15th 2008 with 9,800 home foreclosures a day, 605,000 jobs lost this year and markets in turmoil John McCain says "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
This morning on ABC, George Will, speaking of the current economic crisis, said -
"The question is who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn't John McCain, who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence said let's fire somebody and picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration."
and finished it off with -
"John McCain showed his personality this week and made some of us fearful."
