> To my way of thinking, the national debt pay-down is by far the
> worst thing in domestic policy Clinton could ever contrive to do
> -- much worse than welfare reform, Star Wars, or his cave-in on
> capital gains in 1997.
>
> mbs
>
[Picciotto, Sol] OK, what is Clinton's justification for this? Our Blair government also shackled itself by its pre-election pledge which not only promised to tax increase (which could have been interpreted to mean no basic income tax rate hike), but also a 2-year standstill on existing departmental budgets. The Blairites claim that this was essential to make Labour electable, as the taint of tax-and-spend was supposed to have torpedoed Kinnock in 1992. Is the Clinton package designed to try to avoid a deadlock with a Republican-dominated Congress? Or are both of them appeasing finance-capital?
Relatedly, is there any movement around an Alternative Budget? I have heard that this has proved a fairly effective rallying-point in Canada.
cheers
sol