How Did the US Blow It?

[anarchy]

Remember, January 21, 2001 we had 8 years of Bill Clinton despite all the scandals our country for the first time had a real budget surplus, the Middle Class was growing, and were not at war with anybody. Had we kept on the Bill Clinton Budgets we would have retired the entire National Debt and had surpluses instead of record deficits to deal with.

Of course that never happened and in 2008-2009 we saw a economic meltdown that had not been seen since the Great Depression. Despite a Democratic President that the Republicans hated there was real progress on entitlements that took something that is foreign to our Legislators today called "compromise." My question is this how do we recover from all this mess? Or do we become another Argentina?

[Philly]

You, sir, have a pre-9/11 mindset. Everything has changed.

[Ben Huh]

Presidents are responsible for the budget? Thought that was Congress. Silly me.

Compromise is nothing but a talking point in our government and few politicians do it (McCain, Feingold).

[Professor]

[Ben Huh]

[Philly]

The president is very influential in the budget process.

[Ben Huh]

[Philly]

No influential as in the president and congress need to agree to a budget. Of course we just do continuing resolutions now.

[Professor]

The President is exceedingly influential. Congress doesn't actually "spend" hardly any money (except on their own staff and buildings). The President is the one that pays for a military, infrastructure, healthcare, etc. If the President says, "I need $14 trillion for infrastructure", Congress can debate if it's really $13 trillion or $15 trillion. But, they ultimately dance around what the President has given them. They either reduce or increase the President's own number.

In terms of influence, the President has more than the entirety of Congress. Why? Because, even though Congress can reduce the budget, the President can move money around with little expectation of recrimination from Congress. So, if Congress underfunds a certain program by setting restrictions on it or simply not putting money into it, the President ultimately can decide to move money from another program into it, or ignore the restrictions. He might risk the ire of Congress, but he does that often anyway.

[Ben Huh]

Budget plans are law, so naturally they have to be signed into law by the executive. They have some input, but it's little compared to congress.....and yeah, it's all continuing resolutions at this point. Kick that can down the road.

As for the actual topic at hand, there is no pint at trying to recover. Both parties have engrained Americans into their pet projects to warrant any changes to occur. Old folks will never let go of their benefits, corporations will always have corporate welfare to catch them when they fail, unemployment will be at meh levels for a good bit of time, etc. Good luck getting anyone in the party bases to go against the grain.