Surplus Quotes
He never actually set foot in Maryland but governed through deputies.
Jefferson was opposed to a standing army or a buildup of revenue even in case of war. He thought that a national surplus might tempt an administration to engage in war. This was one of the biggest differences between the Jeffersonians or Republican Democrats as they called themselves and the Federalists led by George Washington and John Adams. Washington was a strong advocate of military preparedness, while Jefferson believed that a nation which had a strong army and war chest would be too easily tempted to use it. That debate has raged in America since. However, at the beginning of the second world war, the then conservative party, the Republicans, had adopted the Jeffersonian view and it was FDR and the Democrats arguing for armament and preparedness. The United States was terribly unprepared for war, but mobilized rapidly and won the day. Since then both parties have supported military preparedness and the political argument has been over the degree, but there are few Jeffersonians left when it comes to military preparedness.
Vladimir Lenin. The “war-time” referred to the Civil War in Russia which broke out after the 1917 Revolution where the Whites and the Reds fought for control of Russia.
The socialists were then the opposition party, and the conservative government was going to give tax rebates which would go mostly to the rich.
After many years of deficit financing, Clinton finally produced a balanced budget and together with his Secretary, of the Treasury, Robert Rubin, actually developed an economy which was producing a huge annual surplus that would soon eliminate the national debt. However, when George W. Bush replaced Clinton after two terms, Bush was unable to manage the budget any better than the other aspects of the Presidency. He cut taxes dramatically and even after it was clear that the Clinton surplus was squandered, he continued tax reductions and even increased them while increasing government spending creating the biggest government in history and went from our largest surplus to our largest deficit in his 8 years.
In 2001, the nation had a huge budget surplus from the Clinton administration and there was much political debate over economic policy. President Bush wanted to have a very large tax cut. Greenspan had testified that given the very large surplus, the nation could afford a tax cut and not resume a deficit. However, the tax cut did not have the stimulus effect that the President had hoped, and the surplus was used up and exceeded. To make matters worse, September 11 began the War on Terror which required extensive additional government spending. The nation went from the largest surplus in American history to the largest deficit in American History in the next 4 years. Greenspan did something that is very rare in Washington. He publicly admitted error.
