Bruce Bartlett totals up the damage former President George W. Bush did to the country’s fiscal health. He finds that if the Clintonian policies had continued over the course of the 2000’s (i.e. had President Gore been sworn into office rather than the usurper), then the United States would have had a budget surplus of $5.6 trillion at the end of Fiscal Year 2011.
Let me say that again.
A surplus of $5.6 trillion.
That would have been enough to pay off the $5.6 trillion national debt that existed at the end of 2000, assuming that the wars in Iraq never took place (and it would not have), and the war in Afghanistan was not ignored for 6 years, which also assumes that 9/11 took place, which is in question since President Gore would have continued Clinton’s policies of actually pursuing Al Queda that Bush had dropped in early 2001.
But as we know, Bush did not continue Clinton’s policies. Instead, he reduced tax revenues by $6.1 trillion through his tax cuts, and then increased spending by $5.6 trillion, a turnaround of $11.7 trillion.
