The Republican Contract with America balanced the budget

CLINTON vs. GINGRICH -- the BALANCED BUDGET SHOWDOWN

Our CONfused friends inappropriately tries to deflect credit away from the Clinton administration that inherited recession and record deficits from Reagan/Bush and turned them into record surpluses and economic prosperity.

The model that turned things around was the Democratic model, not the so-called “Contract on America.”

Al Gore even wrote a book to describe the specifics of the Clinton proposal titled, "Creating a Government that Works Better and Costs Less" (1993) with a foreword by business efficiency guru Tom Peters (author of "In Search of Excellence"). It detailed specific cuts, economic stimuli, and government by targeted incentives instead of micromanagement and regulatory detail.

It was the Clinton/Gore proposal which passed in 1993, barely, without a single Republican crossover vote when the Democrats still had a majority; the Republicans, with their usual doom-and-gloom pessimism, predicted economic disaster. As usual, they got it wrong.

Again, there was a Republican alternative but that was not the one that passed.

Remember Newt Gingrich and his little tantrum, blocking passage of the Clinton budget and letting the government shut down after the Democrats lost their majority? As a result of the public outcry, rightly blaming Gingrich, he passed down and it was the Clinton Democratic proposal that actually passed, NOT Gingrinch’s “Contract On America” alternative. If “Iceman” wants to promote his ideological beliefs, fine, but rewriting history is not going to convince any intelligent person.

And what actually happened to the Republican predictions of doom and gloom and economic collapse? Every single year of Clinton's first term, budget deficits were reduced, until at the end of that term they crossed over into surpluses for the first time since it was done by -- guess who? -- LBJ and the Democratic Congress (FY 1969, passed in February 1968), despite the costs of the Apollo Moon Program.

When government operates more efficiently, it costs less, and taxes go down. When you do more with less, taxes go down. When you proactively prevent problems instead of reactively clean up the mess in their wake (the fence at the top instead of ambulances at the bottom), it costs less. When you encourage compliance with incentives rather than only through the heavy hand of punitive government force, it costs less and taxes go down. When you broaden the base of economic prosperity, there is greater productivity all around, real wealth goes up, and the tax base expands.

Peace, prosperity and sunshine to all, DD Wiz