Cognitive Dissonance

In a recent conversation with a conservative friend of mine I brought up the point that Bush (hswib) has converted a surplus to debt as far as eyes can see. His response was that the surplus was actually never realized. Unfortunately at the moment I was sidetracked into a discussion of what the real economic situation was at the time. In retrospect I should have not worried about that and just let him hang with his own words. If the surplus was not real then the justification for the Bush (hswib) was bogus from the start. Furthermore, it would mean that instead of taking a good situation and making it bad he took a neutral situation and made it terrible. I'm so slow sometimes.