Posted on 02/02/2009 2:10:09 PM PST by BradyLS
A friend asked me to consider Dwight Eisenhower as the last "fiscally responsible" President. Until the launch of Sputnik and the subsequent advent of the Space Race, he says that Eisenhower tried hard to blunt Soviet expansion and meet them head-on during his administration while also doing his utmost to keep the budget of the government balanced and its growth checked.
Basically, once Sputnik was launched and the CIA caught flat-footed on estimates about the advanced level if the Soviet rocketry program and ICBM capabilities, subsequent administrations spared no expense in meeting any perceived threat. This sort of "spare no expense" approach to problem-solving spread through the rest of our government agencies and, as a result, the number of agencies and programs have exploded--spending more and more money to meet various perceived "crises" and "threats."
Andrew Jackson. Under Jackson in 1835, the US Government was briefly debt-free. It hasn't been that way since.
You may be right. It was a different world after FDR and WW2.
The last true fiscal conservative may have been McKinley. Then Teddy went and loused that up.
Wasn’t the top tax rate under Eisenhower’s budget 91% ?
You’d have to go back before FDR at least. Probably before Lincoln, too. You know, back when we were a republic. I lack precise historical knowledge, but Jackson sounds fine. Bearing in mind that he was an enemy of big government mostly because the fat cats in charge of Congress weren’t Jacksonians.
Yes, there is a strong argument to be made for that. He refused to lower taxes, if the budget wouldn’t balance.
That's a great question. I don't have a ready answer, but the Wikipedia article for "Interstate Highway System" says:
...While Interstate Highways usually receive substantial federal funding (90% federal and 10% state) and comply with federal standards, they are owned, built, and operated by the states or toll authorities...
...The Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 – popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 – on June 29. It had been lobbied for by major U.S. automobile manufacturers and championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences in 1919 as a young Army officer crossing the country in a truck convoy (following the route of the Lincoln Highway), and his appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system...
...The initial cost estimate for the system was $25 billion over 12 years; it ended up costing $114 billion (adjusted for inflation, $425 billion in 2006 dollars) and taking 35 years to complete. Additional spurs and loops/bypasses remain under construction, such as Interstate 485 in North Carolina. A few main routes, not part of the original plan, remain under construction, such as Interstate 22 in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee...
Bill Clinton with a Republican Congress?
>Andrew Jackson. Under Jackson in 1835, the US Government was briefly debt-free. It hasn’t been that way since.
Indeed, I should love to see a debt-free country.
You win! Although I suspect saying so is heresy around here.
Calvin Coolidge.
He was way before eisenhower though.
I second Coolidge.
From what I’ve read, he consistently lowered taxes while consistently lowering spending, to the extent that all his budgets, I believe, had a surplus.
Huh?
Certain parts are yet to be constructed?
I thought for sure I remembered...like maybe 10 years ago...that they finally celebrated the completion of the eisenhower interstate system.
He was a republican. And he had an interesting idea about taxes.
Taxes should be VERY low
and...
Taxes should be paid by only a small minority of the people.
In otherwords, only the uber rich pay taxes, and they only pay a pittance.
Judging by the article, there are original parts of the system that have been built, original parts never built, and later parts added—some built and some not.
According to the article, a celebration was held for the completion of the last of the original authorized highways.
Who was the president that archie bunker and his wife sang about in their intro to the show? Was that calvin coolidge?
That was Hoover, about whom Coolidge said something to the affect, During the past six years that man has offered much unsolicited advise . . . all of it bad.
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