Well, granted, Mike asked '... are you better off?...',
but I'll dare switch the 'you' for a 'we', and answer Mike's question from that perspective.

For the 8 years Clinton was in office, the national debt went for 4,3 trillion to 5,6 trillion. More importantly, it decreased from 70% to 56% of GDP under Clinton's administration.

For the 8 years 'W' will have been in office, the national debt will have grown from the 5,6 trillion mark to a stratospheric 10,4 trillion.
As an expression of GDP, W.B.'s administering will have reversed all the reduction of the Clinton era, and will have succeeded to push the the debt to 73% of GDP.

More than 50% of that debt is now in the hands of foreign countries, with Japan and China on top of that list.

THAT'S 5 TRILLION DOLLARS EVERY US CITIZENS OWE TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

What kind of clout do you think the US has over China, to speak of that country, when it is owed nearly 2 trillion of that debt, and you depend on them to keep buying more of those 'debt' bonds in the future?!?!?

The same clout you have with your banker, when your mortgage is a few months behind, and you want to complain about service charges!!!

Did I mention 'mortgages'?!?!?

As 'KerryO' pointed out:

'... Record numbers of foreclosures? Record numbers of bankruptcies? Pension funds worried about solvency because of the subprime mess? (<--- oops, I misspelled 'investment fraud'.)...'

As for responsibility?!?!?

100% 'W', and 100% the people who voted him in for a second term.

Without even getting into engaging with Iraq, it can all be summed-up in te amateur 'cow-boy' manner of his administration's handling, or rather misshandling of the situation.

He naively figure on a 3-6 months events, with this invasion.
He figured it would 'unbruise' Americans from the 9/11 attacks.
He figure it was going to have only limited impact on the economy: drop in consumer spending.

Well, we all know what happened.
The conflict wasn't over whn the 6 months deadline came up.
When 'W', was asked whether his illegal war was going to hurt the economy, he claimed high and loud, hell NO!

Miraculously, the 'feds' kept supporting an aggressively low interest rate policy (stimulate domestic spending) at a time when all economic indicators were pointing in the opposite direction.

Maybe you can come out unscratched from such 'cowboy' economic policies on a 6 to 12 month window, BUT NOT 5 YEARS OF IT!!!

Hello 'steroid' stimulated domestic spending, and 'subprime' monster!

When you have a 'bozo' running your business, the only way to exercise your rights and responsibilities (being on the hook), is to FIRE THE BUM ON THE SPOT!!!

Not firing the bum is what the US people are on the hook for!


Check out the 'National Debt Clock' :

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html .

Stay for a few minutes on the site, refresh the page every 'second' or so, watch the number change, and make sure to have your 'high-blood' pressure pills right next to you!!!

'... ARE WE DOING BETTER...'

From that vantage point, I don't know who can answer YES!!!

Well, granted, Mike asked '... are you better off?...',
but I'll dare switch the 'you' for a 'we', and answer Mike's question from that perspective.

For the 8 years Clinton was in office, the national debt went for 4,3 trillion to 5,6 trillion. More importantly, it decreased from 70% to 56% of GDP under Clinton's administration.

For the 8 years 'W' will have been in office, the national debt will have grown from the 5,6 trillion mark to a stratospheric 10,4 trillion.
As an expression of GDP, W.B.'s administering will have reversed all the reduction of the Clinton era, and will have succeeded to push the the debt to 73% of GDP.

More than 50% of that debt is now in the hands of foreign countries, with Japan and China on top of that list.

THAT'S 5 TRILLION DOLLARS EVERY US CITIZENS OWE TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

What kind of clout do you think the US has over China, to speak of that country, when it is owed nearly 2 trillion of that debt, and you depend on them to keep buying more of those 'debt' bonds in the future?!?!?

The same clout you have with your banker, when your mortgage is a few months behind, and you want to complain about service charges!!!

Did I mention 'mortgages'?!?!?

As 'KerryO' pointed out:

'... Record numbers of foreclosures? Record numbers of bankruptcies? Pension funds worried about solvency because of the subprime mess? (<--- oops, I misspelled 'investment fraud'.)...'

As for responsibility?!?!?

100% 'W', and 100% the people who voted him in for a second term.

Without even getting into engaging with Iraq, it can all be summed-up in te amateur 'cow-boy' manner of his administration's handling, or rather misshandling of the situation.

He naively figure on a 3-6 months events, with this invasion.
He figured it would 'unbruise' Americans from the 9/11 attacks.
He figure it was going to have only limited impact on the economy: drop in consumer spending.

Well, we all know what happened.
The conflict wasn't over whn the 6 months deadline came up.
When 'W', was asked whether his illegal war was going to hurt the economy, he claimed high and loud, hell NO!

Miraculously, the 'feds' kept supporting an aggressively low interest rate policy (stimulate domestic spending) at a time when all economic indicators were pointing in the opposite direction.

Maybe you can come out unscratched from such 'cowboy' economic policies on a 6 to 12 month window, BUT NOT 5 YEARS OF IT!!!

Hello 'steroid' stimulated domestic spending, and 'subprime' monster!

When you have a 'bozo' running your business, the only way to exercise your rights and responsibilities (being on the hook), is to FIRE THE BUM ON THE SPOT!!!

Not firing the bum is what the US people are on the hook for!


Check out the 'National Debt Clock' :

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html .

Stay for a few minutes on the site, refresh the page every 'second' or so, watch the number change, and make sure to have your 'high-blood' pressure pills right next to you!!!

'... ARE WE DOING BETTER...'

From that vantage point, I don't know who can answer YES!!!

100% yes we are. Regardless of what the news says "omg bush is killing inocent people!!" Our media is caught up on the "body count" more then anything else. Of course lives are lost, lives were lost in many wars that gave us the freedoms we have today in America. Saddam tourchered his own people, he didn't care about them, if they lived or died. Terrorism was something that needed to be delt with, it's something that still is a concern and always will be. Ignoring it didn't work, understandably.

There was a video of a very young Iraqi man(16/17 years) in iraq coming out from a home with a RPG in his hands. He came out, got on his knees, set it up to fire and was shot by our soilders. His RPG was taken away of course. So now, a poor young boy laied dying in the street, probably on his way to get bread for his hungry family. visously shot down by American troops. You have no real idea what is truely going on overseas. I will never trust the news and media to give me a true story.

Why did he have an RPG in his hands if not to kill someone?
And do you think that someone could have been American soldiers? Do those same soldiers not have the right to defend themselves
if someone is trying to kill them?

.. I don't think you understood my post.. I mean that he WAS going to kill them and it WAS american soilders. I mean once they take that RPG away from that boy, the media will see and then broadcast how we are killing 'innocent' people. Sorry if I was completely clear about it.

.. I don't think you understood my post.. I mean that he WAS going to kill them and it WAS american soilders. I mean once they take that RPG away from that boy, the media will see and then broadcast how we are killing 'innocent' people. Sorry if I was completely clear about it.

almost all of the "innocents" which you speak of my friend, were killed by insurgeants, not soldiers. And further more, there are no good things that derive from war. It is a hellish place we should all avoid at most costs. However, since it began it has now become a necessary evil with which we must all bare a burden. Some more than others. God bless our troops, and god be with those that have fallen to the hands of someone else's beliefs.

sorry bro...guess things could have changed recently. I just know when i was over there the insurgeants were targeting the iraqi civilian populace. Specifically those that supported us. It's kind of a psychological thing. I don't remember the numbers exactly but from my experience, there were 3 of my fellow soldiers killed and about two dozen wounded. Two of which were severly injured. We killed/captured 150 to 200 terrorists/insurgeants. I know of two people that we mistakenly killed. These are people that would drive at us after being told to stop in their language, then we would show a weapon pointed at them, and we fired warning shots, yet they still made no attempt to slow the vehicle (this was standard progression of force, note: we still would not fire unless we actually felt threatened), there was one mistaken injury from a bullet ricochet downtown (injury was not serious), and there were about 50 iraq national guard memebers that were killed by insurgeants, as well as about 100 unarmed civilians from things like suicide bombs, or car bombs. There were probably another 100 or 200 wounded by these same events from insugeants. There were about a dozen iraqi police and the governer of Baghdad ambushed by insurgeants. (No survivors that i can recall). I have witnessed at least the aftermath of all these events. No, i do not have a reliable media source that i can site at this time. And oh yeah, i may be out dated cuz this was 2004-2005 time period, these events took place in Baghdad, Sadre City, and Mosul. Unfortunately the news doesn't very often report our success. No there were no cover-ups, no accounts of us just going gun-crazy. We were professionals, trying to finish the jobs that America sent us to do. (Right up until people changed their minds about us being over there)

If the President is the reason for your ills, you have bigger issues than he does.

If the President is the reason for your ills, you have bigger issues than he does.