Swidden

Mar 3 2004, 03:20 AM

Finally, a late congratualtions to Howard Dean. He finally won one(Vermont)! This might just be the boost his campaign needs

Adrian

Mar 2 2004, 11:58 PM

24thcentfan hits on an important point: in this election, the agenda that is set will determine the winner.
If jobs, the economy,the war in Iraq, and Bush's job performance become the issues Kerry will carry the day (get it?).
If the threat of terrorism, gay marriage, or social issues grow to import Bush will win.

Quote:

 

HUME: On the economy, the Democrats, led by John Kerry, are saying that the tax cuts manifestly haven't worked, the economy has failed to recover in a way that would generate job creation of the kind that everybody obviously wants. What's your answer to that?

CHENEY: I think that the economy is significantly improved. I think all the data point in that direction. We inherited a recession, a recession that began either shortly before or about the same time that we got into office. We'd had the economy complicated by the attacks of 9/11 and all the disruption that that put in. The president put forward with his tax cuts in spring of '01 and '02 and again in '03, and I think it's precisely the right medicine for the economy. We're now to the point where the last half of last year we grew at better than 6 percent with the highest rates in 20 years. All the indicators are headed in the right direction. We are creating more jobs, not as fast as we'd like, we need to continue to work on that. But the fact of the matter is we've made major progress and what the Democrats are offering at this point are tax increases, at exactly the wrong time. The kind of tax increases that would choke off the recovery.

HUME: The deficit has obviously grown, it looks huge. There are those who say that it is a real threat to the economy at these levels and, put together with vast, unfunded entitlements that lie out there in the future about ready to hit, that the Administration has really not effectively dealt with that issue. What's your response?

CHENEY: We have inherited a situation in which it's been necessary, it's in effect been driven by the economy into a deficit status, the budget has. The falloff in federal revenues, primarily due to the recession, accounted for about half of the increase in the deficit. We're also at war. We've had to spend a lot more on defense and homeland security, and those are all legitimate reasons for running a deficit. I think we'd be subject to legitimate criticism if we didn't go forward on those initiatives. And the fact is, over the course of the next several years, the president's budget calls for cutting the deficit in half, by 50 percent. The deficit today, relative to the total size of the economy, is not as big as it was back in the '80's or early '90's, so to cast this as some sort of economic crisis is not true.

Quote:

 

16 years? Really? Isn't that the same prediction that was had for Clinton/Gore in 92?

ImpulseEngine

Mar 3 2004, 12:00 PM

^^^
According to exit polls, the majority of Democratic voters who voted for Kerry are not only unhappy with Bush, but angry with him. There's no doubt that a lot of that is due to the enormous job losses during his administration.