Word: surplus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...then came the surplus, a $4.6 trillion paper windfall on which Al Gore and George W. Bush sketched out their competing ideologies and Clinton presented as his legacy. But voters, rightly, were a little skeptical...
...surplus that seemed to go as far as the eye could see suddenly made tax cuts a stump speech staple again. "It's your money," Bush used to say - and soon the targeted vs. across-the-board debate reared its head as a partisan issue. But in the fight for the swing voters who had slowly learned to love fiscal discipline, tax cuts were not high on their presidential to-do list. Perhaps the best that could be said of Bush's $1.3-trillion-dollar baby is that it didn't cost him the election...
...First, we can afford it. Despite the gloomy economic outlook in the short term, reinforcements are coming. In February, the Congressional Budget Office announces a new 10-year surplus projection that is already expected to add up to $6 trillion. That's $1.4 trillion more than the current figure...
...dealbreaker will be fiscal discipline. Greenspan's own view of the surplus's long-term viability will be a major factor, and you can bet he's skeptical about not only the wisdom of any 10-year economic forecasts but politicians' ability to keep spending in check. But here the CBO's new numbers should come into play again - that surplus may be part fantasy, but at least it's getting larger...
...Heck, they might break off a piece of that surplus of ours and divvy it up 50 ways, and get all the precincts in all the counties in all the states a few machines each. Enough to keep the line moving. And get them the ship-shape maintenance plan, and have technicians on hand. Nothing's too good for our democracy...