Toddsterpatriot
Diamond Member
Bill Clinton raised the top tax rate, and reduced military spending.
He raised rates in 1993.
The economy (and government revenues) didn't really take off until Gingrich got him to cut capital gains taxes.
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Bill Clinton raised the top tax rate, and reduced military spending.
The "reduced military spending" was in form of reduced replacement of old equipment along with reduced spending on spare parts, ammunition stocks, routine maintenance~repair~refit, some cuts in pay(promotions) and benefits, etc.Bill Clinton raised the top tax rate, and reduced military spending.
National Debt has been a concern since our Nation's founding. Many Founders spoke against having Deficit and Debt as a Federal policy and were for financial solvency.The national debt only became a problem with the Republican delusion that it is always a good idea to cut taxes for the rich and never a good idea to raise them.
1980 was President Carter's last year in office. The top tax rate was 70%. The national debt was $908 billion. President Reagan reduced the top tax rate to 28%. His last year in office was 1988. That year the national debt grew to $2,602 billion. President Clinton raised the top tax rate slightly, but it never reached 70%. Presidents Bush II and Trump cut the top tax rate, while raising spending for a military that could not defeat the Taliban in twenty years. During the eight years Bush II was president the national debt rose from $5,807 billion to $10,025. During the Trump years the national debt rose to $27,748.
U.S. National Debt by Year
The U.S. national debt grew to a record $34 trillion by the end of 2023. It was just $16 billion in 1930.www.thebalance.com
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf
What do we have to show for all that debt? Nothing really, but more millionaires and billionaires, and a military that could not defeat the Taliban in twenty years. Most Americans have not benefited economically.
View attachment 683204
The Second World War ended in 1945. Then the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 114%. During President Carter's last year in office, in 1980, this had declined to 32%. It declined under Republican and Democrat Presidents, It declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The top tax rate never got below 70% and was as high as 94% in 1945.On Debt to GDP Ratio, we see a rather steady and low rate of increase from post World War Two up until about 2009,
The Second World War ended in 1945. Then the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 114%. During President Carter's last year in office, in 1980, this had declined to 32%. It declined under Republican and Democrat Presidents, It declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The top tax rate never got below 70% and was as high as 94% in 1945.
President Reagan reduced the top tax rate to 28%, and increased military spending substantially. This increase was unnecessary because the United States was at peace and the Soviet Union was collapsing from within. Because of Reagan's tax cuts for the rich, the national debt as a percentage of GDP rose to 50%.
U.S. National Debt by Year
The U.S. national debt grew to a record $34 trillion by the end of 2023. It was just $16 billion in 1930.www.thebalance.com
During President Obama's eight years in office, from 2009 to 2016, the national debt as a percentage of GDP grew from 82% to 105%. During this time Obama was dealing with the deepest recession since the 1930's, a recession that began when George W. Bush was president.
Nevertheless, the debt grew quite a bid more under Trump than Obama.
View attachment 683346
Obama's big mistake was in not hiking the top tax rate soon after his inauguration. His approval rate was 69%.
Presidential Approval Ratings -- Barack Obama
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?news.gallup.com
That was the time for Obama to do some heavy lifting. For years public opinion surveys have indicated support for a more progressive tax system. Higher taxes for the rich mean lower deficits, like they did from 1945 to 1980.
The Second World War ended in 1945. Then the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 114%. During President Carter's last year in office, in 1980, this had declined to 32%. It declined under Republican and Democrat Presidents, It declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The top tax rate never got below 70% and was as high as 94% in 1945.
President Reagan reduced the top tax rate to 28%, and increased military spending substantially. This increase was unnecessary because the United States was at peace and the Soviet Union was collapsing from within. Because of Reagan's tax cuts for the rich, the national debt as a percentage of GDP rose to 50%.
U.S. National Debt by Year
The U.S. national debt grew to a record $34 trillion by the end of 2023. It was just $16 billion in 1930.www.thebalance.com
During President Obama's eight years in office, from 2009 to 2016, the national debt as a percentage of GDP grew from 82% to 105%. During this time Obama was dealing with the deepest recession since the 1930's, a recession that began when George W. Bush was president.
Nevertheless, the debt grew quite a bid more under Trump than Obama.
View attachment 683346
Obama's big mistake was in not hiking the top tax rate soon after his inauguration. His approval rate was 69%.
Presidential Approval Ratings -- Barack Obama
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?news.gallup.com
That was the time for Obama to do some heavy lifting. For years public opinion surveys have indicated support for a more progressive tax system. Higher taxes for the rich mean lower deficits, like they did from 1945 to 1980.
Regardless of what the Constitution says, the system has evolved to the extend that the President has the leading role in taxing and spending. The Presidential administration sends Congress a budget. Congress adds and subtracts, and returns the budget to the president who can sign or veto it. During the campaign of 1980 Reagan made it clear that he intended to cut taxes and raise military spending, and that is what he did. Everyone in Congress who voted to cut taxes while raising military spending shares responsibility for the rise in the national debt, and the rise in national debt per gross domestic product (GDP) that happened during the Reagan administration, but Reagan is mainly responsible, because it was his initial proposal. During the Reagan administration George Will, a Republican columnist, said that if every Reagan has been approved in its entirety, the increase in the national debt under Reagan would only be 10% less than it was.President Reagan reduced the top tax rate to 28%, and increased military spending substantially.
All by himself?
This increase was unnecessary because the United States was at peace and the Soviet Union was collapsing from within
Are you still sad that the Soviet Union collapsed?
During President Obama's eight years in office, from 2009 to 2016, the national debt as a percentage of GDP grew from 82% to 105%. During this time Obama was dealing with the deepest recession since the 1930's,
You mean the recession that ended in June 2009?
Regardless of what the Constitution says, the system has evolved to the extend that the President has the leading role in taxing and spending. The Presidential administration sends Congress a budget. Congress adds and subtracts, and returns the budget to the president who can sign or veto it. During the campaign of 1980 Reagan made it clear that he intended to cut taxes and raise military spending, and that is what he did. Everyone in Congress who voted to cut taxes while raising military spending shares responsibility for the rise in the national debt, and the rise in national debt per gross domestic product (GDP) that happened during the Reagan administration, but Reagan is mainly responsible, because it was his initial proposal. During the Reagan administration George Will, a Republican columnist, said that if every Reagan has been approved in its entirety, the increase in the national debt under Reagan would only be 10% less than it was.
When I think of what has followed the fall of the Soviet Union I am not pleased with the results. I vastly prefer Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin. Soviet leaders, including Nikita Khrushchev expressed sanity and realism about the danger of nuclear war that I do not detect in Putin. During the 1990's the standard of living of about 80% of Russians declined, often to precipitous degrees. Many pensioners died because the new government was unable to pay their pensions.
That is what led to the rise of Putin. Because I admire Edmund Burke, I dislike abrupt political changes. Consequently I sort of do regret the fall of the Soviet Union. For the same reason, I regret the rise of the Soviet Union. If the Bolshevik takeover had not happened in 1917, the Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky would have evolved into a representative democracy. Because it would have continued to fight Germany, the Germans would not have been able to move forces to the Western Front. Germany would have lost World War I earlier.
I even regret the fall of the Romanov Dynasty. If Czar Nicholas II had had the sense not to mobilize, Germany would not have declared war on Russia. What became World War I would have been localized in the Balkan Peninsula. Russia's defeat in the War with Japan in 1905 had caused Czar Nicholas II to be reduced from an absolute monarch to a constitutional monarch who shared power with a democratically elected Duma. Without World War I Russia would have still became a representative democracy, only with a figurehead monarch.
Republicans used to value balanced budgets. What happened to that?During the campaign of 1980 Reagan made it clear that he intended to cut taxes and raise military spending, and that is what he did.
Yeah, just two of the things that made him so awesome.
The Soviet Union fell in December 25, 1991. The economic declined happened afterwards.During the 1990's the standard of living of about 80% of Russians declined, often to precipitous degrees. Many pensioners died because the new government was unable to pay their pensions.
Yeah, the commies are best at fucking over their own people.
Republicans used to value balanced budgets. What happened to that?
The Soviet Union fell in December 25, 1991. The economic declined happened afterwards.
I have already said that I regret the rise and the existence of the Soviet government. Nevertheless, the Soviet government carried Russia from semi feudalism to the space age while doing most of the fighting and dying to defeat Nazi Germany. It is not clear to me that a less tyrannical government could have industrialized rapidly enough to produce the weapons that defeated Germany.Their economy sucked well before they collapsed.
It was kind of the reason why they collapsed.
Communism doesn't work.
Nevertheless, the Soviet government carried Russia from semi feudalism to the space age while doing most of the fighting and dying to defeat Nazi Germany.
What you say is true.And they only murdered 20 million (more?) of their own people to do it.