The Republicans magnified their economic quackery by frantically trying to minimize public perceptions of the long-run fiscal problems of America's social-insurance system, largely to deflect attention from the fact that Bush threw away the budget surpluses President Clinton had bequeathed him - and with them what may have been the country's last best chance to fix things in this regard short of some form of disaster. These same Republicans also argued for government spending restraint while blocking the institutional changes to Congressional procedures needed to make spending restraint possible.
共和党夸大了他们的经济骗术，发疯似的尝试减少公众对美国社会保障系统长期财政问题的感知，主要是把人们的注意力从布什浪费掉克林顿总统留给他的预算盈余——同时浪费掉的还可能有美国在没有某种形式的灾难情况下最后一次治理好这方面问题的好机会——这一事实上转移开。同样是这些共和党人，在赞成限制政府开支的同时又阻挠对国会程序进行制度改革。这些改革是限制开支所必需的。