# Which Party balanced the Budget in the 1990's?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 9, 2010, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834 "2010-03-09T09:38:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834/21 "2010-03-10T01:42:47Z")

</div>

Offhand, I would speculate that neither party balanced the budget, the tech stocks boom did.

And then we went into the pit when a) the bubble burst & b) the GOP decided that growth was eternal (despite the bubble bursting) & slashed taxes, even gave tax rebates, so we wouldn’t have annoying surpluses.

So the GOP _unbalanced_ it, anyway.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834/22 "2010-03-10T04:33:49Z")

</div>

OK, now everyone take a minute to imagine how the budget would have turned out if there had been a President Gore. I kinda don’t think he would have blown up the store.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834/23 "2010-03-10T04:50:33Z")

</div>

What do you suppose he would have done?

-XT

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834/24 "2010-03-10T15:52:44Z")

</div>

> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> The same party claims to be both. Not that Republicans are actually fiscally conservative, but they claim to be.

They used to be…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834/25 "2010-03-12T21:39:50Z")

</div>

Yeah, I can believe that the GOP were fiscally conservative[sup]1[/sup] in the 1990’s, when they lacked the White House. Funny how they stopped being so once a Pubbie was Prez.

1. (Albeit occasionally short-sighted; see the ham-handed attempt at Soviet-style central planning to avoid a health care “glut” in the 1990’s, leading to a shortage dymanic in that sector over the next 15 years. Bad enough the socialistic Canucks with their universal Medicare fell for this; where was GOP respect for market demand?)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-balanced-the-budget-in-the-1990s/531834.md?page=1)