What To Do With Our Budget Surplus -- UPDATE

Those eager, Republican "Men of Business" sure seem to have a lot of super, MBA-sounding ideas about how to spend down all that extra money which the outgoing, Democratic administration is leaving behind*

And you can bet, if elected, those Republican Men of Business will be extra careful with all that dough!

After all, those surpluses were the result of painful and politically costly reforms -- reforms for which the outgoing, Clinton administration sacrificed several key programs and campaign promises made to its Liberal constituents -- which they put in place to help pull the nation back from the brink of the financial abyss which the previous 12 straight years of Republican fiscal mismanagement had left in its wake. And the Clinton administration did all of this while at the same time the Limbaugh Party -- the Party that ran up that astronomical tab -- busied itself trying to destroy President Clinton's ability to conduct the nation's business through the use of a dizzying combination of witch hunts, wild abuses of prosecution power and crackpot billionaire-funded slander.

And so, as chastened as the Republican Party must be by

1. Their own epic failures, and
2. Being forced to watch as those, Socialist America-hating Democrats methodically cleaned up their mess and put the nation's house back in order 

I can only assume that this time around they will be much more careful.  Especially after being handed this helpful warning by Clinton Administration Labor Secretary, Alexis Herman:

"Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, appointed by President Bill Clinton on May 1, 1997, told CNNfn.com that Bush's proposed plan to cut taxes would harm the fiscal discipline that has allowed the current U.S. administration to turn the record deficit into a record surplus, fueling economic growth and creating more new jobs than ever before."

After all, its not like the American electorate would be stupid enough to forgive the same gang of criminals and demagogues for nearly destroying the country the same way twice.

Right?

* For those with Conservative friends or colleagues who have spent much of the last ten years manufacturing all kinds of hilarious, ass-covering fairy tales, I include this end-note about the tall tale that this was all just another Evil Liberal Lie cuz there ain't wuzzint never no god damn "surplus" anyway! (Or, if your local Conservative doubters are slightly less clod-of-dirt ignorant) how Dubya (who was famous for his nuanced language) had carefully qualified everything he said about this alleged "surplus" with a busload of caution if-statement.)

Here, then, is the relevant portion from George W. Bush's own 2000 Republican Convention acceptance speech, which he delivered live and in front of at least a hundred million witnesses:

...
Today, our high taxes fund a surplus. Some say that growing federal surplus means Washington has more money to spend. 

But they've got it backwards.

The surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money.

I will use this moment of opportunity to bring common sense and fairness to the tax code.

And I will act on principle.

On principle ... every family, every farmer and small businessperson, should be free to pass on their life's work to those they love.

So we will abolish the death tax.

On principle ... no one in America should have to pay more than a third of their income to the federal government.

So we will reduce tax rates for everyone, in every bracket.

On principle ... those in the greatest need should receive the greatest help.

So we will lower the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent and double the child tax credit.

Now is the time to reform the tax code and share some of the surplus with the people who pay the bills.
...

And for the record (he said, grimly aware that facts and history have been exiled from the professional wrestling freak show that is our national media conversation) in addition to the surplus, George W. Bush  also inheriting a 3.9% unemployment rate, a robust job-growth rate and the "problem" of wage inflation caused by too few workers available to fill all the available jobs.


UPDATE -- Now with 70% fewer stupid, late-night composition and spelling errors!