Fiscal responsibility, so touted by conservatives, was reversed drastically.

Republicans turned former President Bill Clinton’s huge surplus into a huge deficit. During Clinton’s term, the Republican Congress ballyhooed wasteful Democratic spending. At Bush’s instigation, this Republican Congress contrived the biggest debt and deficit in history. To make the deficit appear smaller, the $70 billion Social Security surplus was transferred into the general fund. Tax breaks for the wealthy and ballooned military spending put us in the red even before our Afghanistan and Iraq wars cost several billion dollars.

Bush and the Republican Congress are flip-flopping. They have annihilated social justice programs and recklessly given welfare to the richest few. Bush’s promotion of consumer spending has led to super-high consumer debt levels, which will lead to fewer people in the middle class. Bush promotes socialism for the wealthy and big corporations. This president and the Republican Congress’ massive tax cuts for the rich, military spending and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan turned Clinton’s huge surplus into dangerous deficit.

Bernice Russell

NIU alumna