Pwoxby, i'm not sure what the "surplus" was in Clintons time (I thought it was more a balance budget then a surplus???), but it definitely was no where near the magnitute of deficit that either Regan or Obama invoked. So you can't make it sound like a perfect plan except for Bush (believe, i hate Bush for his spending policy...I just think you are giving Regan and Obama too much of a free pass here). The deficits and surplusses need to be at least similar in magnitude. Since i can't imagine any president having the political will or ability to pass a huge surplus that will match the deficits of the lean times, I'd prefer we just try to stick to the a balanced budget all the time.

Mmmm- easy with the name calling...what evidence do you have that we would be in a "great depression"? Do yourself a favor and read an account of the actual great depression sometime. The Worst Hard Time is a good one that focuses on the dustbowl. I find it hard to believe that letting a few companies fail would put us anywhere near the hardships of that time. Unemployment was near 30% at one point. How about we wait until we hit even 15% before we start using scare tactics like a second great depression. There are plenty of people within wallstreet that will tell you they think companies should have be left to fail. it would have been a tremendous mess. and the economy would have been in the shitter for a while. but we would have made it through. and we'd be a stronger economy after for having cleaned out the poorly managed corporations.