WSJ on JMK X 2

[Lawrence]

From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> The federal budget surplus is rapidly shrinking. That's a good thing,
> but you wouldn't know it from the debate in Washington, where the
> standard recession-fighting prescription is endangered by a newfound
> obsession with the Social Security surplus.
> Amid a softening economy, how important is preserving the federal
> budget surplus? Participate in the Question of the Day.

It's interesting how once every 50 years or so the main parties will
complete switch sides on some major issue. Like civil rights. For awhile
after the Civil War all blacks voted Republican because that was the party
of Lincoln. Things began to change with FDR, and now the situation is quite
reversed. Same with fiscal policy, apparently. The Democrats were the party
of loose money for at least 100 years. Now we've got a Republican
administration that won't intervene in the markets to prop up the value of
the dollar, and who feels comfortable running a deficit.