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Credit or debit?

Wed., June 29, 2011

Congress proposes and passes federal budgets. The president proposes one of his own. Congress, if it wishes, may totally ignore it if they choose. The budget is the roadmap used to provide for the nation’s financial needs from one year to the next.

There is one notion that I have never understood. Why is it that the president, in the mind of so many citizens, gets all the credit or blame for the state of the economy when Congress is the author of the budget?

President Clinton is remembered for a robust economy during a period of a Republican-controlled Congress. President George W. Bush is remembered for an economy that resulted in huge deficits during the period of a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Gene Sivertson

Spokane

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