Why did Bill Clinton & the Democrats avoid fixing Social Security when they controled the goverment?

Question

These answers are lame.

Answer 1

Clinton was busy running up the nat'l debt to 5.6 trilion, while claiming a surplus... a complete baboon, his entire false economy based on the dot.com bubble, that burst and left Bush with a recession.

Answer 2

because the best way to fix it, is to lower deficits.
If you had any clue how the program actually works, you would know, heading toward a surplus is fixing the problem.

It is suppose to be dipped into by other programs, and paid back at a low interest. That is how the program works. basically the government loaning itself money, and providing the public with a benefit for the ability to do so, so it isn't quite a tax.
Any tax dollars left over after the budget is met, is suppose to be placed into social security, so it can be loaned to any program that doesn't meet its budget for a particular year. Social securrity is always in trouble everytime our government runs a huge deficit, usually the result of military spending.

currently yours, mine, and everyone else's SS is being spent in Iraq.

Answer 3

My take is it was a campaign promise. As with many few come to real life. Clinton was searching for Saddam and he blew the heck outta Sudan & Afghanistan. He also went into Iraq. All under"peacetime" rules. Operation Desert Fox, The Persian Gulf War... 4,417 reported dead soldier's in less than 4 years.

We have NAFTA and trade agreements with China. Arms sales and alot of Executive Orders. A bill introduced to extend the Presidential term. Hillary developing a Health Care program. Technically she should have been appointed to a position. Then technically they would be in violation of nepotism laws. Republicans held the House and kept some of the spending & taxing down. Bill reduced the military. He altered the Fed and created easy lending practices that led to our mortgage mess. Plus the US has the worst credit card debt in the world.
He way busy alright. I never mentioned the rest. He was being Popular. For the poster doubtors who do not get it do the research. Try Google anything -Clinton. Some enlightenment to fill you stockings.

Anyone who wants part deux is really in the dark. Look it up :))

edit: I sit corrected. It was PC to dip into SS as it was reported as a surplus that Clinton felt he could make better on... hmmm I even forgot that one Clinton manipulated funds like a puppet master... he always made the numbers "work" or had them removed/destroyed/held as Exec priv in vaults .

Answer 4

They didn't know that Al Gore wasn't going to win the White House in 2000 after the Supreme Court "selected" George W. Bush president. Plus the REPUBLICANS had a Majority in BOTH the House and the Senate and well, just judging by Bush II and the Republicans in the Congress and Senate now, we ALL know how OBSTRUCTIONISTIC they are!So the Democrats didn't really have a chance to fix Social Security. And they had no way to know that George W. Bush was going to borrow from the Reagan playbook and "borrow" from Social Security to make his projected deficits look smaller.
Why didn't Bush and his Republican Majority fix the AMT when they had the chance?

Answer 5

They only had two years to do it and the Republicans were griping over losing control of the White House. Let's not forget that the Democrats did not have 60 members of their party in the Senate, so things can not pass without the Senate's approval. The Republicans were making full use of the filibuster rule until they had control.

Answer 6

Too busy bringing down the papa Bush debt and bringing the economy out of recession. Also Republicans had control of Congress from 1995-2000.

Answer 7

BC it is the 3rd rail in politics. It is a system that can't be fixed. It can only invest in government debt. No one trust anything else enough for the government to invest in. One can't put it into a lock box - it would KILL the economy. If a politician sees an unspent dollar (S)He has already figured at least 10 ways to use it to buy himself into office.

Answer 8

Probably the same reason George W. and company haven't fixed it....no one can figure out how. Let's face it, whoever figures a sensible and fair way out of the mess our country is in with social security will be a national hero and his/her administration will be forevermore lauded in the history books. They would all like to solve it. Unfortunately, too many are beholden to too many special interest groups and are more interested in their poll numbers than in solving problems. There are ways to fix this problem but they aren't going to be popular

Answer 9

The monthly excess of Social Security was used to help balance the budget just as it is now except then it worked. SS is not in trouble according to Alan Greenspan. Medicare is in trouble.

Answer 10

too busy balancing the budget,growing surpluses, reforming welfare and creating 22 million jobs...can you give me some accomplishments that have taken place in the last 7 years?