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QUOTES PAGE
Quote concerning human nature:
“And no one should be surprised, human
nature being what it is, people will go as far as they possibly can get away
with.” – Senator Hillary
Clinton
Quote concerning irresponsibility:
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Gandhi’s Seven
Deadly Sins Wealth without Work Pleasure without Conscience Science without Humanity Knowledge without Character |
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Politics without Principle Commerce without Morality Worship
without Sacrifice |
Quote concerning credibility:
There’s a fine line
between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Quotes and excerpts concerning economics and
finances from the following:
H. Clinton * DeGette Democrat Conference Dodd D-Caucus DNC Edwards Feinstein
J. Kerry Kennedy
Klobuchar Lautenberg
Leahy Mchenry Pelosi Perlmutter
J. Reed Reich Reid J. Salazar K. Salazar
Schumer Sperling Spratt Udall WashPost
* Includes Comments on Sarbanes-Oxley
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Person and Date |
Excerpt
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Politics without
Principle? |
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D
- California |
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When President Clinton was president,
their last four budgets—his last four budgets were in surplus. We came out of
the |
The CBO
did not predict a $5.6 trillion surplus. CBO
#6 Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement.
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Rep Diana DeGette, D -
Colorado, 1st Attorney |
Excerpt
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Politics without Principle?
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“For six years the Republican Congress and President Bush’s
budgets have made irresponsible cuts to important domestic programs while turning
a record surplus into a record deficit. That fiscal recklessness ends
this week.” “The Democratic budget takes |
The comments
by Rep DeGette demonstrate a lack of understanding as to the temporary nature of the budget
surpluses in the late 1990s. Rep DeGette
places the blame for the decline in the surpluses on Republican policies
when, in fact, the decline had begun during
the Clinton administration (CBO #4).
Rep
DeGette apparently believes a budget surplus obtained from capital gain taxes on a hyped stock
market, flat profits, unsustainable increases in salaries
and wages as a percentage of GDP, and cuts in defense spending to be a
model for fiscal responsibility. There is
no better example of the congresswoman’s well documented history of unprincipled
political statements as the budget she refers to increases the debt by $415 billion by 2012. |
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These rules force spending increases
and tax cuts to be paid for before they are enacted and enabled Congress and
President Clinton to turn a $290 billion deficit into a $5.6 trillion surplus
in just 6 years. Sadly it took President Bush and his Republican
Congress just five years to turn that surplus into a $3.2 trillion deficit. |
Was it
the rules or the “new economy”? CBO #2 The CBO
stated the 2000 economy may be temporary.
CBO #10 Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. The
congresswoman speaks of the $5.6 trillion projected surplus as if it was a
reality. The CBO included considerable
uncertainties surrounding the
projection. |
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According to the independent Congressional
Budget Office, the Bush administration has turned the budget surpluses of the
Clinton Administration into a $262 billion budget deficit in 2003. |
The CBO
is not independent. CBO #11 |
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After all,
the American public trusts Democrats to fix the problems in corporate the conference committee
recognized that corporate abuses will not end until Congress makes changes
that attack the root of the problems. As we have
seen from the collapse of Enron and other large corporations, auditors had
guiding principles that were extremely weak and easily ignored by accountants
and corporate management. Additionally, accounting improprieties were
purposely overlooked because the auditors became too cozy with the companies
they audited and made huge profits from non-audit consulting services. Additionally,
requiring companies to rotate their auditors is very important to ensure that
senior executives and the people auditing their companies do not become too
cozy and allow a company to get away with accounting tricks. |
If the deceptive Democrat comments
on the certainty of the 2001 budget projection that just happens to include
11 pages of uncertainties is any indication, the trust is not well
founded. CBO Uncertainties. The same
can be said for the American electorate concerning Congress. What are
the guiding principles that allow Congress to make statements on
forward-looking statements that a CEO is
prohibited from making? Another
concept for the American electorate to consider when evaluating Congressional
safe districts. |
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the most significant issues raised by the corporate
governance scandals. This includes requiring that CEOs and CFOs attest to the
truth and accuracy of their company’s financial
statements and holding senior management accountable |
If only
Congress was required the same truth and
accuracy. |
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Rep John Salazar D - CO |
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Madam Speaker, the administration has turned a projected 10-year,
$5.6 billion surplus into a nearly $3 trillion deficit. Today, we will restore the pay-as-you-go rules that were
instrumental to the budget surpluses we experienced in the early 1990s.
Pay-as-you-go budgeting with no new deficit spending is a key first step.
This will reverse the budget deficits that are currently passing billions of
dollars in debt to our children and our grandchildren. |
The CBO
did not predict a $5.6 trillion surplus.
CBO #6 Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. Pay-Go
had nothing to do with the dramatic down-turn in revenues after 2001. In addition, the tax
revenue per capita has nearly returned to historical averages. The
eventual budget passed in March 2007 increases
the debt by $415 billion by 2012.
Clearly a duplicitous tactic by the representative. |
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Rep
Mark Udall, D |
Excerpt
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Politics
without Principle?
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We must restore fiscal sanity to our national budget and prepare our kids
for the economy of the future. |
To
“restore fiscal sanity” implies there was once a repeatable process. If restoring “fiscal sanity” means
returning to the budgets of the late 1990s there needs to be some details on
where the investment capital will come from, how an inflated stock market can
generate the necessary capital gains tax revenues, how highly taxed wages and
salaries can be increased while profits are sacrificed and how defense
spending will be cut. In other
words, refer to REPORTCARD2000.COM and explain how to
repeat the results of the late 1990s. |
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Congress will have to address this, and should do so sooner rather than later.
However, the excessive and poorly-targeted tax cuts enacted in 2001 will make
the job harder. Those tax cuts, combined with the effects of the
economic downturn, have made it necessary to use some Social Security
revenues for other purposes -- including needed increases in spending on
defense and homeland security - instead of reducing the public debt and so
reduce the options for bolstering Social Security and Medicare in the future. |
“Sooner
rather than later?” The CBO indicated
in 2001, before the downturn was confirmed, that Social Security demands
could lead to huge debts. CBO #3 Excessive
tax cuts? The
tax revenue per capita has nearly returned to historical averages. Contrary to the Clinton Administration,
increases in defense spending are recommended. |
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the President’s tax cuts have drowned the budget in red ink
and led to the worst tax increase of all – the national “debt tax” that will
have to be paid by our children. I believe
it is immoral to leave this debt to our children and grandchildren and
Congress must act to bring fiscal responsibility back to the federal
budget. In
January 2007, as part of the new rules package adopted by the House, I voted
to restore pay-as-you-go rules which require that all tax cuts and programs
to be paid for in order to stop any new deficit spending. |
Looking
at REPORTCARD2000.COM it is easy to determine the
decline in revenues were the result of fall-out from the dot-com bust. The tax revenue per
capita has nearly returned to historical averages. Pay-Go
had nothing to do with the dramatic down-turn in revenues after 2001. In addition, the tax
revenue per capita has nearly returned to historical averages.
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Sen. Diane Feinstein, D - California |
Excerpt |
Politics without Principle? |
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We
have moved a long way from where we were 6 years ago. When President Clinton
left office, he left with a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. That
surplus could have allowed Congress to eliminate the Nation's debt by 2010. |
The
economy was, however, weakening more than previously expected. CBO #3 Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. The
budget the senator refers to actually increased
the debt by $415 billion by 2012. |
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But
the economic policies of the past 5 years have produced a catastrophic
turnaround. Record budget surpluses have given
way to record deficits |
The CBO
stated the 2000 economy may be temporary.
CBO #10 |
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Sen Hillary Clinton, D – Attorney |
Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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(There is an entire web page dedicated to Senator Clinton’s
May 29, 2007 speech.) |
Any doubt about the
relevance of REPORTCARD2000 will be dispelled in the analysis of this speech. |
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“Now, of
course, we can't simply recycle the policies that worked in the 1990s. These
are different times.” |
If there were a secret
to the success of the 1990s economy, the senator would certainly tout the policy at
this point. |
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"We
need to take steps to restore fiscal responsibility and sound economic
policies based on the facts not ideology," |
An
apparent change of position from her quotes in 2005 and 2001. When was there
“sound fiscal responsibility” and what were the elements? Does an unsustainable economy constitute
“sound fiscal responsibility?” |
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When President Bush took office, the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) predicted that
by 2011, we would have a budget surplus of $5.6 trillion. After four years of
the Bush Administration, the CBO now predicts that we'll have a budget
deficit of $2.58 trillion in 2011. |
The CBO did not “predict” a $5.6
trillion surplus. In fact, the CBO
explicitly stated it was NOT a prediction.
CBO #6 There is no comment on the use of forward
looking budgets.
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The Administration has begun to
destroy in less than eight months what it took our nation, on a bipartisan
basis, eight years to achieve. If this were a movie, it would be called,
"Honey, I Shrunk The Surplus." |
The CBO
stated the 2000 economy may be temporary.
CBO #10 |
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And most important, it means
jeopardizing our ability to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits for the
millions of baby boomers who begin retiring in a decade from now. |
SS was
jeopardized in 2000. CBO #3 |
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Sen Ken Salazar, D – CO Attorney |
Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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Six
years ago, we were running a budget surplus. While the national debt was five
trillion dollars, for the first time in almost twenty years, we found
ourselves in a position where we could start to pay off some of that debt. We
knew we would soon face the demographic pressures associated with the
retirement of the baby boom generation, but we had the resources at our
disposal to begin preparing for those pressures. Now,
just six years later, the circumstances that gave us a reason to be
optimistic have all but dissolved in a sea of irresponsible fiscal policies,
dishonest accounting, and partisan opportunism. |
The CBO
stated the 2000 economy may be temporary.
CBO #10 SS was
jeopardized in 2000. CBO #3 Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. What
about the irresponsibility of not understanding how the revenue surge in the
late 1990s and 2000 occurred? Refer to
REPORTCARD2000.COM |
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Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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Prepared by the House Budget
Committee Democratic Staff 2/6/2006 When
this Administration took office, it inherited a projected ten-year surplus (2002-2011)
of $5.6 trillion. Based on a realistic estimate of the President’s policies,
that surplus has now become a $3.3 trillion deficit over the same period of
time, a dramatic fiscal reversal of $8.9 trillion. Some advocates claimed that the 2001 tax
cuts would generate such large growth in income that revenue collected would
be higher after the tax cuts due to an expanded tax base, implying that the
tax cuts would “pay for themselves.” The deterioration in tax receipts since
2001 shows this not to be the case. |
The House
Budget Committee apparently chose to ignore Rep. John M. Spratt, Jr.’s January
31, 2001 press release before issuing this graph. The CBO
indicated there were considerable uncertainties surrounding the 2001 budget
projection. CBO #2 Only a
committee that does not understand how the revenues occurred prior to 2001
can arrive at this conclusion about the decline in tax receipts. |
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Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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and
when |
The
economy had slowed before Bush became President. CBO #3 |
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D
– NY Attorney |
Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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"It's a huge mess," Sen.
Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of trying to pass a decent budget.
"It's one of the worst things we have to do." Schumer, vice
chairman of the Senate Democratic Conference, argued that even when Democrats
propose increased spending for widely shared goals, such as homeland
security, Republicans "are going to say 'you're spending too much,' even
though it's . . . a mess they created." |
The
economy had slowed before Bush became President. CBO #3 |
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Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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After six years
of record deficits and unchecked, irresponsible spending, President Bush
again resorted to deception and distortion to sell his latest budget today |
President
Bush is not the first president to resort to creative accounting. CBO #5 |
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"It is the
height of hypocrisy for President Bush to be talking about fiscal
responsibility after he squandered a huge surplus with fiscally irresponsible
budgets for the past six years," said Democratic National Committee
Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "President Bush's latest budget offers
more of his same failed economic policies, a clear sign that he just doesn't
understand the economic reality most Americans face. His budget is
unrealistic, filled with Enron-style accounting gimmicks, |
Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. |
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Sec
Robert Reich |
Excerpt
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Politics without Principle? |
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Look
at the other side of the ledger and things are almost as bleak. Yes, revenues
are up slightly. But they’re still running $100 billion less than what the
White House projected five years ago when it sold its tax cuts. In fact,
overall revenues have barely reached the level they were in 2000. |
Note there are no disclosures about the use of
a forward looking statement. The CBO
stated in 2001 the revenues in 2000 were an imperfectly
understood phenomena. CBO #15 REPORTCARD2000.COM provides clarity. |
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You
don’t have to have total recall to remember that after Bill Clinton raised
taxes and cut spending, we had faster revenue growth than now, a higher rate
of new investment, more jobs, and a more rapidly-vanishing deficit. |
If the
raised taxes and cuts in spending were the cause of the good economy, why was
the economy slowing in 2000 without a significant change in either? CBO #4 |
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The
President’s supply-side tax cuts have had only one conspicuously positive
effect, for one conspicuous group. They’ve helped people earning over $200K a
year become fabulously richer. These people do have cause to celebrate, and it’s
understandable if they want to parade around in their designer clothes. The
rest of us, though, are still caught in a downpour. |
As of 2005 the top 1% had not returned
to the levels of 2000. |
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Sen John Edwards – D - NC |
