Bush and Reagan

"[T]he problem is not that the people are taxed too little, the problem is that the Government spends too much. Until President Clinton and the liberals in Congress accept that principle and act accordingly, I'm afraid we are headed for a repeat of the late 1970's. And that is something we can all live without. . . . For more than four decades, one party, the Democratic Party, has controlled the House of Representatives. The solution to the deficit problem is not to ask heavily taxed working Americans to 'sacrifice' even more. It's the big-spending liberals controlling the Congress who need to show some restraint and 'sacrifice' a few of the pork-barrel measures they've been slipping past the taxpayers for far too long." (From a 1993 op-ed that Atrios very shrewdly points to tonight)

"President Bush is considering new economic initiatives to go along with a possible increase in troops to help stabilize the country, according to officials familiar with the administration's review. . . . The economic package now on the table focuses on three elements, and is separate from the long-term jobs-creation program being promoted by the U.S. military." (Washington Post, "Bush Considers Economic Package For Iraq: Officials Describe the Initiatives as Part of a Series of Steps Designed to Counter Insurgency," also tonight)