Brilliant! Finally my conservative local paper has some balance to it! Loved it and look forward to more of your work!

The Star? Actually, most people don't consider the Ventura County Star to be a conservative paper, and some folks think of us as on the liberal side. We run some conservative columns and cartoons, but these are to balance more liberal columns and cartoons.

Anyhow, thanks for the nice words on my work... feel free to explore this archive (you can see years' worth via the links on the right-hand side).

Wow! You've compressed a lot of data and information into just a few words, and very few images. Great cartoon.

May I use the cartoon in history and government classes?

I actually was able to balance my budget using Clinton's idea's. He dismantled out military and raised taxes to produce a surplus. I took the same approach. My kids no longer get lunch money and I sold the wood from our fence and doors. I have all kinds of extra money now. Hopefully nobody decides to fly a plane into my couch...

Ah yes, the old "Clinton dismantled the military" Fairy tale. Amazing the stories Americans will allow themselves to believe.

http://www.csbaonline.org/4Publications/PubLibrary/H.20000831.Post-Cold_War_Defe/H.20000831.Post-Cold_War_Defe.php

I would like to republish this with full linking and credit...what are your rules on that?

For Ed and jennica: please email me (sgreenberg@venturacountystar.com) with your specific idea of how, where and in what context you were planning to use my cartoon.

You've been dugg.

Also, I've reposted your cartoon with full credit and a link back. I hope that is ok, but please let me know if it isn't!

I'd rather be a tax and spend democrat than a BORROW AND SPEND REPUBLICAN.

This should be posted all over the country-nomore words, just this brilliant cartoon. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Steve,
Brilliant Cartoon. I've never seen anyone communicate these facts as clearly and precisely. The simple fact is that Republicans say one thing and do the exact opposite once in office. Their real objective---above all others---is to put as much money into the pockets of the very wealthy people who they hang out with and who fund their campaigns. And that's the source of these deficits every time the Republicans are in the White House.
Congratulations on a superb illustration of a fiscal truth.

Thanks for all the nice words, folks. You're also welcome to send a Letter to the Editor (link at right) so it can be seen beyond these blog comments.

Just a quibble, but what you're showing is only annual deficits, what is added to the federal debt in a single year. These number's don't count money borrowed from Social Security, so the increase in the debt is considerably worse.

The real issue is that the "fiscal conservatives" have added many trillions of dollars to the federal debt. A far more shocking picture.

Thanks for the illustration.

Mazel Tov on a great cartoon. The truth hurts!!!!!

I especiallly enjoyed the cartoon in today's paper.Why is it my Republican friends do not see that as clearly as you do? Thanks I will have to send them an e-mail with your site address so they can get anpther perspective.

Thanks

Ev from Massachusetts

Steve; do you offer prints of your cartoons? If so, please let me know how I could order your August 3, 2008 work. Thanks,

Mike

Mike: Yes, sometimes I will do this. Please email me off-blog at sgreenberg@venturacountystar.com. Are you local to Ventura County?

Look at who was in control of Congress during those periods.

Re: Your "Fiscal Conservative" cartoon. I seem to recall that under Reagan and the Bushes there was a Democrat Congress, while under Bubba we had the "Contract with America" with Newt. Still a pox on both their parties. This is why I greatly prefer GRIDLOCK, so, neither can push through their crappy agendas. Attila Kerekes, Warwick, RI.

Can I get this as a poster? Thanks

Digg it!

http://digg.com/political_opinion/Steve_Greenberg_s_Awesome_Fiscal_Conservative_Cartoon

Well, this says a mouthful!

awesome, awesome, awesome!!!! where do i buy the t-shirt?

'Checking it out in New York State--'Makes just as much sense (non-sense)!

lol @ people in here arguing results with a bunch of excuses.

Pretending like the 90's were horrible is so see-through. yeah, GOP...it was awful.

The economic prosperity in the 90's cannot be contributed to Bill Clinton any more than you can attribute the internet to Al Gore. The president can make suggestions, and that's it. He has no real say.

If you want to find the party responsible for the deficit reduction and economic boom of the 90's look no farther than Newt Gingrich and the Republican controlled House and Senate. Have any of you ever actually READ the Contract with America? Want to be a REAL history teacher Ed Darrell? Read them that, don't show them cartoons. Idiot.

Can SOMEONE please PLEASE talk about congress and thier freaking responsibilites in all of this!?!?!?!?

Please america... tell me who decides WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES?!?!?!?!?!?

Its not your president... he has the option to veto or ok....
so who asks???

Presidents are not near as damn important as our congress. Democracy was designed to be that way. So that many people, not ONE PERSON, could come to the best conclusions and create the best plans for all parties and citizens involved...

STICK IT TO THE MEN/WOMAN! ITs not 1 man... get smart, stupid.

Beyond brilliant!

Hey Canis,

If "The president can make suggestions" and "has no real say" then you should feel quite comfortable with Barack Obama being elected into such a do-nothing position.

And, as i recall, it wasn't congress that was clamoring to go into Iraq. Who was that again?

I believe the biggest mistake congress made there was not standing up to the president and saying "No!" to that costly mistake.

If republicans are so fiscally responsible where's the money coming from to pay for the war, anyway?

Bush's war. Bush tax rebates. Bush incentive checks. Cutting taxes. The government is hemorrhaging money that it doesn't have!!!

Which brings me to the only reason democrats can own the title "tax and spend" is because they are fiscally responsible and have to clean up the deficit sins incurred by republicans who are nothing but spend spend spend.

That's why the cartoon is so funny. Because it is so true.

I think democrats should turn the tables on the republicans and start funding the projects they want the same way the republicans do. Keep spending up the deficit - after all, there's an infinite amount of money off into the future.

Um, Clinton never actually ran a surplus. Look at the debt graph, it goes up every year.

http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/USDebt.png

This was a lie run through the media for some reason. Clinton was able to borrow money from social security and not consider it "debt". The full detailed explanation can be found here:

http://www.letxa.com/articles/16

I went out to the www.letxa.com web site and read the article.

Using the same U.S. Treasury web site that the article sites, i calculated the following (using a spreadsheet);

R. Reagan spent up the national debt $1.6946337 trillion (8 years)
G.H.W. Bush spent up the national debt $1.462283 trillion (4 years)
B. Clinton spent up the national debt $1.742842 trillion (8 years)
G. W. Bush spent up the national debt $4.081737 trillion (7 years)

At first blush i found this a bit unsettling and then i charted the data. I wish i could insert the image in this blog.

It shows during the Reagan years a slight upward curve to the deficit which indicates that it is increasing year to year.

It shows a marked increase during G.H.W. Bush's term.

It shows a decreasing curve from year to year during Clinton's terms.

And finally a HUGE increase during G.W. Bush's term (which i don't even have the final year's data for).

Just a note to Canis and the others pointing out control of Congress:

Under Clinton: 1993-94 Democratic House/Senate, 1995-2000 GOP House/Senate

Under Bush: 2001-6 GOP House/Senate, 2007-8 Democratic House/Senate

There are arguments to tie politics to economics and arguments that distance the two, but if you're going to play the congressional card, you have to play it honestly. Clinton's economic programs were backed by the GOP Congress and, in turn, Clinton backed the Contract with America. Clinton also failed to veto deregulation, which is a large part of what got us into this mess to begin with and was proposed by a GOP congress. Bush ran this country into the ground for 6 years with a GOP, "yes-man" Congress, and has since stalled with a year and a half of a "do nothing" Democratic Congress...

So actually boiling it down to this cartoon makes more sense than bringing Congress into it; how relevant either are is up for debate.

Absolutely my favorite political cartoon so far. It appeared in the Nov-Dec '08 issue of the UAW magazine "Solidarity."

Clinton failed to veto deregulation; however, if you look at the numbers that bill was "veto-proof." But he should have still vetoed it.

Better to tax & spend and at least pay for what you do than to borrow & spend and leave my grandkids to pay for it.