Al Gore

[Viperfreak2]

Yes. The budget would have remained balanced if not for the wars.

[Viperfreak2]

Here is the chart I find the most disturbing:

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by JCL

I am not an expert on US economics, and since I don't have a better source I will just take as read the graph that viperfreak2 posted.

However, what I don't understand about your post is that the budget surplus peak appeared to fall in the year 2000, some time before the Sept 11 attacks that you refer to. Also, you note that two wars removed the surplus, it wasn't a spending issue. Wasn't the money being spent on the two wars?

Wars are a necessity (especially you know when people blow up your citizens) unless of course you like to take a back seat and let others defend you

And hardly, Bush was president for only months before Sep 11 busted out so any "spending" was already on Congresses books. Unlike today where the new Admin immediately started writing checks. Kinda like how the bulk of the payments for things like "health care" and other packages come due around oh, 2012-15... convenient isn't it

Really not sure how any of this relates to Al Gore. If the claim is "Al Gore created the surplus" then lets append all the military failures to Al as well since not engaging an enemy saves a lot of money for social programs. Not to mention glorious NAFTA

[alewifebp]

Let's take a look at the updated charts directly from the CBO, not using dated information provided by Media Matters. Updated in 2010, scroll down to the baseline budget outlook in table 1.
Summary

While this isn't a nice looking graph, it clearly shows no surplus in sight, and this assumption is at current entitlement levels, as in, no ObamaCare.

[Viperfreak2]

Originally Posted by Wagner

Wars are a necessity

Really not sure how any of this relates to Al Gore. If the claim is "Al Gore created the surplus"

Gore absolutely did not create the surplus. He was part of a team to cut waste. That is what Bill Clinton publicly said the VP's job was.

What the hell is Biden doing, other than sticking his foot in his mouth?

I agree some wars are a necessity. Iraq no, Afganistan, yes. AND we should have (and still should) bomb the crap out of the North Korean and the Iranian nuclear sites, and wipe out the Pakistan border region. No ground forces, just AIR FORCE.

While Bill was busy with skirt, Hillary and Al were running the show, kinda like Cheney. I only hope Biden isn't the real brains in the current administration! The way things are going, he just may be.

At the beginning of the first term in 1992, Clinton and Gore developed a "two-page agreement outlining their relationship." Clinton committed himself to regular lunch meetings, recognized Gore as a principal adviser on nominations, and appointed some of Gore's chief advisers to key White House staff positions [...] Clinton involved Gore in decision-making to an unprecedented degree for a vice president. Through their weekly lunches and daily conversations, Gore became the president's "indisputable chief adviser."[26]
Gore had a particular interest in reducing "waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and advocated trimming the size of the bureaucracy and the number of regulations."[

[Dannyell]

I agree with most of what you have said Viper...but what is your reasoning behind bombing Iran and N Korea...

[CarsRmyVICE]

I hate all politicians, they are the lowest scumbags of all. They don't do shit except walk around smiling giving speeches they never wrote(nowadays anyways). America is run by corporations and that will never change. With that said I fricken love this place and have no desire to live elsewhere.

Economists all haven different answers in regards to macro policy. Who the hell knows who is right until the cards are on the table. Tax cuts work when our economy is in good health, but sadly it is not and was not in 2001 and 2003. There is 1000 reasons why the US economy is screwed, but I like to believe we will emerge from this mess alive and well.

I am no climatologist so.....Al gore is a trip. I respect the fact that he is raking in dough hand over fist. This is America is it not? Who said you can't tell stories and get paid. Hell of a salesman if you ask me.

[Viperfreak2]

Look at the leaders of NK and Iran. Imanutjob publicly says the holocaust never happened and Israel needs to be wiped off the planet. What will he do when he posseses 10-20 nukes? The 'dear leader' of NK? Kim Jong-il's official biography[3] states that he was born in a secret military camp on Baekdu Mountain (백두산) in northern Korea on 16 February 1942.[8] Official biographers claim that his birth at Baekdu Mountain was foretold by a swallow, and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens.

Soviet records show that Kim Jong-il was born in the village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, in 1941,[4] where his father, Kim Il-sung, commanded the 1st Battalion of the Soviet 88th Brigade, made up of Chinese and Korean exiles

Kim Jong-il is the centre of an elaborate personality cult inherited from his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung. Defectors have been quoted as saying that North Korean schools deify both father and son.[90] He is often the centre of attention throughout ordinary life in the DPRK. His birthday is one of the most important public holidays in the country. On his 60th birthday (based on his official date of birth), mass celebrations occurred throughout the country on the occasion of his Hwangap.[91] Many North Koreans believe that he has the "magical" ability to "control the weather" based on his mood.[90]

In 1994, North Korea and the United States signed an Agreed Framework which was designed to freeze and eventually dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid in producing two power-generating nuclear reactors.[45] In 2002, Kim Jong-il's government admitted to having produced nuclear weapons since the 1994 agreement. Kim's regime argued the secret production was necessary for security purposes — citing the presence of United States-owned nuclear weapons in South Korea and the new tensions with the U.S. under President George W. Bush.[46] On 9 October 2006, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency announced that it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.

I know this thread is about Al Gore. Some of this happened during the Clinton Gore years. Sorry about the off topic.

[Dannyell]

For some reason you are assuming that Iran will use nukes on Israel...would be suicide...same goes for Israel using nukes on Iran. Just because the guy is a nut job and says a bunch of BS doesn't give us or anyone the right to bomb them...plain and simple. UN, Russia and China are involved in these matters as well, and Im pretty sure our 'cowboy' ways during the Bush era are somewhat gone.

But again...You can't expect Iran not to have weapons when Israel has an undisclosed amount of nukes...

As for N. Korea...IMO gets too much attention in the media. Of course they will want to have some kind of weapons...when US has a bunch of nukes in S Korea...doesn't that make sense to you??

[Viperfreak2]

Of course it would be suicide. That's the lesson we learned from the cold war.

IF we take out the nuclear facilities before they come on line and are able to produce bomb grade uranium (too late on the NK's) then we set the potential of us losing a city WAY back. If we wait till the nutjobs running those countries have the opportunity to strike first, we lose NYC and they lose everything. Which is better?

By the way, I don't listen only to the US's anti-NK propaganda, I read about real experiences, and watch for myself:

Inside North Korea: the ultimate package tour | Travel | The Observer