Republicans didn't cut, cap or balance

Happy 10th Anniversary!

It sure didn't take George W. Bush and the Republican Congress very long to fuck things up, did it? That article was written on August 1, 2001.

"The Bush administration said the need to borrow in the third quarter reflects a short-term cash squeeze and doesn't signal a move from budget surplus to deficit".

Oh yeah,  how'd that work out for the country? Revenue dropped that year and Bill Clinton's last budget ended with a $128.2 billion surplus, down from a $236.2 surplus from the year before.  So, Bush and the Republicans' did their $1.35 trillion tax cut for the top 1%,  $3 trillion on the two wars they didn't pay for and their $1.2 trillion Medicare Part D scam.  They didn't 'cut' or 'cap, and they haven't balanced anything in 40 plus years.

What they did do after that article was published was give us eight straight mega deficits of $158 billion in 2002, $378 billion in 2003, $413 billion in 2004, $318 billion in 2005, $248 billion in 2006, $161 billion in 2007, $459 billion in 2008 and then the coup de grâce of all budget deficits, $1.414 trillion in 2009.

Republicans didn't 'cut, cap or balance' anything when it was their time to do it.  They drove this country into the ditch and they think you're too stupid to remember.  You might be - but I'm sure not.

Happy anniversary, suckers!

Addendum, 2030 hours: Through that 'red ink' link at Think Progress I found this quote from a July 31, 2001 article from the NY Times;

"Further, with the Bush administration now estimating that the surplus for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, could fall as low as $160 billion, the administration and Congress are coming dangerously close to doing something they have promised not to -- dipping into the Social Security surplus to pay for tax cuts or government spending. As recently as January, the surplus was forecast to be $281 billion."

Hey wait! 'The administration and Congress'? That's not cutting or capping! That's called raiding! They thought we had a $160 billion surplus and those phony-conservative assholes were already scheming to raid Social Security to pay for their tax cuts and increased spending.

Most of those Republicans who are whining now in Congress about cutting and capping and amending the Constitution were there in 2001.  McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, Kyl, Coburn, Hatch, Grassley, Inhofe, DeMint, Thune, Toomey, Hoekstra, Issa, Sessions - were all in Congress then.  They should have insisted on a balanced budget amendment before they blew the one we had.

And, oh yeah, to the other 99% - how did that $300 rebate work out for you?  Just asking...