
Exports increase to highest level in two years, narrow trade deficit - The Hill's On The Money
A Host of Current Issues and Political Strategy.



When George W. Bush was sworn into office as president in January 2001, he inherited a record budget surplus. Five weeks later, he addressed a joint session of Congress, urging lawmakers to act swiftly on his signature campaign promise: $1.6 trillion in tax cuts.
"I hope you'll join me in standing firmly on the side of the people," the president said. "See, the growing surplus exists because taxes are too high and government is charging more than it needs. The people of America have been overcharged, and on their behalf, I'm here asking for a refund."
Republicans cheered. But Democrats were deeply skeptical of a tax cut based on projections of a $5.6 trillion surplus over 10 years that, in fact, never came about. At the time, North Dakota's Kent Conrad was the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.
“We have cut the budget, we have balanced the budget and we are moving forward. We have done everything that we could possibly do,” Brewer said before an extended pause.
She then added: “We have ... did what was right for Arizona. I will tell you that we have really did the best that anyone could do.”
Brewer later walked out of the post-debate press conference when pressed on her refusal to retract an earlier claim — proven false — that decapitated bodies were showing up in Arizona’s deserts.
1. The law requires people who want public health insurance to be implanted with a microchip.
2. The law creates a new "private army" for President Obama.
3. The law requires the hiring of 16,500 new, armed Internal Revenue Service Agents.
4. The law requires you to begin to paying taxes on your health insurance next year.
5. The law dictates what you can and can't eat.
6. The law requires hospitals to fire obese employees.