Shy?
I didn't say low unemployment was a charade. I said the "surplus" was a charade. Jesus, even Al Gore let the cat out of the bag so many times Saturday Night Live wouldn't leave it alone. "Lockbox"?
The time to shore up your fiscal house is when things are going well, not when massive corrections are all hitting at the same time. That said, there isn't much Washington can do until they fix/eliminate entitlements and seriously pare down the DoD. There are SERIOUS short term consequences to each of those things, which is why NEITHER party is willing to even discuss them.
Yeah, the 1990s were rosy - on paper. There was unprecedented stock market growth, which led to unprecedented capital gains and the tax revenue that goes with it. There was a new investor class based on Roth/IRA/401k/SEP/etc. and they couldn't pour enough money into the market because the returns were off the charts (Tech Spec/Internet Age). There was the global flattening of energy prices (Oil spent most of its time hovering at $18/BBl), which led to growth all around the world because when people aren't spending a lot of money on gasoline and heating oil, they have a lot more money to waste on durable goods - which has a great downstream effect. There was cheap money - as much as the Fed could print. Banks were lending because EVERYONE was borrowing (my home loan rate when from 8 to 5 in a two year period). It didn't even matter if they were a risk. Lend, lend, lend. It was pretty much all based on flawed economic principles but it ended up being the perfect storm for quite a while.
Then the bottom dropped out, which is what happens when you build a house without a foundation.
So the market inevitably corrected and the government was the last to realize it. The choice of President didn't change anything, other than who ended up with a larger percentage of taxpayer money. The same likely holds true right now, unless this administration actually passes Health Care and/or Cap and Trade. Then you're going to see a collapse of epic proportions in the not too distant future.
To those of you who understand what's been going on, this is overly simple. There are obviously many more factors. But frankly I'm tired of the ridiculous "There was a surplus and now there isn't!" lie that continues to be told and the audience that regurgitates it isn't sophisticated enough for me to waste time going into minutia.
There was never a surplus. There was STILL money being stolen from Social Security to pay for government. The rest of the largess was virtually all based on serious fundamental economic flaws and book cooking that makes Enron look positively innocent.
You get exactly the response you've earned. Friggin' hypocrite.