The Bush Tax Cuts at the Root of America's Fiscal Problem

Republicans have argued incessantly that the 2001 Bush tax cuts are not the reason America is in the fiscal mess we find our nation struggling to overcome today. Now, a senior policy analyst on Ronald Reagan's and George H. W. Bush's administrations tells us otherwise.

Bruce Bartlett, in a July 26th op ed piece, tells us how a projected $6 trillion surplus under Bill Clinton, turned into a $6 trillion deficit as a result of the Republicans' ideologically driven fiscal mismanagement under George W. Bush. In the same piece, Bartlett points out that despite the facts, Republicans have continued to misrepresent the results of the Bush tax cuts, stating categorically that they did not reduce revenues, when in fact the did, and that they stimulated the economy, when we all know for a fact that they did not.

Republican ideologues want a smaller federal government. A government without a Department of Education. A government without an Environmental Protection Agency. A government with only the barest minimum role in protecting older Americans, children, and the disabled. A government that doesn't interfere in Wall Street's financial shenanigans, or in the manipulation of tax loopholes by corporations. If they have to bankrupt the country to get what they want -- so be it.