For as long as most students can remember, Bill Clinton has been the President of the Good Ol’ United States.

With the former Arkansas governor came one of the best economies that the American public has ever seen. We’ve grown up prosperous. We’ve grown up alongside the Internet. We’ve grown accustomed to Amazon.com and its fellow blooming Internet companies. We’ve grown up with the withered face of Alan Greenspan, the wizard of the American Economy. Jobs have been numerous, and a degree equated to one of those many jobs.

The years of Clinton and Gore have been synonymous with economic prosperity, though neither of them could really claim credit for the hand that fate dealt them.

Even though most students couldn’t explain it if we were asked on the spot, we have heard enough political banter about what to do with the large budget surplus that the next decade will provide.

Tax cuts, Social Security, Medicare or any number of government projects, it almost doesn’t matter how the government uses this surplus. To us, it’s a constant reminder of the prosperous American economy.

That word has been used to describe the economy for many a year now. ‘Prosperous.’ ‘We are living in a time of prosperity.’ ‘Our economy prospers.’

What happens when a word is used too much?

It tends to lose its meaning.

By the time we get sick of hearing the same adjective used for our country’s financial stability, we night need a new one. And not one that is a synonym.

Lately, the United States economy has become sluggish. We, the American public, are exhibiting the lowest amount of confidence in our economy since 1993, the year that Clinton took over.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, has provided fire to rekindle the fading light of our confidence. In its latest ten-year projection, America will have a larger budget surplus than was originally thought.

‘Huzzah!’ cry the politicians. The new president and his Republican supporters use this as evidence to back Bush’s proposed tax cuts.

‘Whoa!’ cry the Democratic critics. Five-year plans have already proved to be inaccurate, and even the Budget Committee admits that a ten-year forecast is likely to be as inaccurate. Instead, we should keep on going as usual, just in case.

Who is right?

Not to hop up and down on the fence, but they both are.

Cutting taxes will give more money to consumers. Money that they can spend, resulting in more money flowing through the economy and strengthening it.

But caution is necessary here. If too much is cut, and the forecasts were even a couple percentage points off, that surplus will become a deficit.

What is needed, then, is for both sides to cooperate. Let’s hope that the new administration and the new Congress can do just that.