The last eight years have brought enormous prosperity to this country. We have had some of the lowest unemployment in decades, the highest rate of home ownership, the longest period of uninterrupted growth--the list of superlatives goes on and on.
The benefits of this economy did not reach everyone, but they nearly did. More effective than any government program, the nation's bustling growth meant the annual "Misery Index" of unemployment and inflation combined was lower than at any point since the 1960s.
Not only did the prosperity mean a higher standard of living for most Americans, it meant that our nation got its fiscal house in order. We went from a period of spiraling deficits, poor market confidence and crushing debt service to the unthinkable--surpluses.
Well-respected budget analysts who wrote books just a short time ago with titles like "Why We Will Never Balance the Budget" suddenly found themselves changing the titles of the reprints, not to mention the text.
No one predicted the dramatic growth in our economy. No one foresaw the size of our surplus. Even a year ago, the Congressional Budget Office projected a 10-year surplus of $3.15 trillion. Now the figure is $5.5 trillion.
And this is precisely the problem: Who can really say whether the surpluses will continue for the next five or 10 years? And yet many in Washington would have us bet the farm that they will.
Whether it is mammoth new spending, or mammoth new tax cuts, or a combination of the two, any expenditure plan that presupposes a robust economy and ever larger surpluses over the next decade is almost certain to send us back to the days of deficit spending and fiscal irresponsibility.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when deficits were high and the debt service was enormous, it was difficult to muster the political will to control spending and aggressively pay down the national debt. Even with enormous discipline, government's ability to influence economic cycles has its limitations--the private sector is the true determinant of growth.
But if any change in governmental policy can be attributed to hastening the end of the last recession and spurring our present success, it was the decision of the Congress and last administration to balance our books and pay our bills.
