“The Republican Party is the party of fiscal restraint. Democrats are the big spenders” Another neo-conservative lie told often is perceived as the truth.
The Reagan Republican administration in 1981, inherited a national debt of a little over $900 billion. At the end of eight years, the national debt had tripled. At the end of the one-term Republican administration of George H.W. Bush, the national debt increased $1.5 trillion to $4.2 trillion. Under the eight years of the George W. Bush Republican administration, the national debt doubled to $10.7 trillion.
When the Clinton Democratic administration ended, the Bush administration inherited a budget surplus. Where were the neo-conservative Republicans during the Bush administration as it squandered the surplus and doubled the debt?
The neo-conservative leaders were all present and accepting of immense deficits: Ryan, Boehner, Cantor, McConnell.
Why now the change since Barack Obama was elected president? Why the rigidity, unwillingness to compromise, the hostility?
McConnell said it best. Republican’s number one priority is to make Obama a one-term president — at any cost. The wants of the Republican Party first, the needs of the nation in the throes of another Great Depression is secondary … and they have the audacity to seek your vote.
Inheriting the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, the Obama administration has had to spend $4.9 trillion to stabilize the U.S. economy. Were mistakes made? Probably. When Obama took office, the U.S. economy was hemorrhaging badly and was on the verge of collapse. Immediate actions were required. As a result, the national debt increased to $15.6 trillion. But the threat of an economic collapse was avoided. Remember that.
Most, if not the entire $4.9 trillion deficit should be laid at the doorstep of the Bush administration.
Defying ordinary logic, the Bush administration lowered taxes on the wealthy and entered two wars (one entirely unwarranted and without the slightest merit), and both whose outcome would be very poor at best. The Bush administration allowed unregulated banking and Wall Street market activities. The neo-conservatives participated from 2000 through 2008, when all this was happening and the seeds of destruction were sown.
Were they asleep?
Now they are suddenly awake, ready to save the day by offering the same lies and failed policies that got us in this mess in the first place. Ah, but they have an underlying objective that I will reveal in my next letter.
And, what about the creation of corporations “too big to fail?” Where is this all leading? Read my next letter and the explosive conclusions.
E.M. Frank
Categorized | Letters to the editor
More politics
Posted on05 October 2012.
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Another great letter Mr. Frank, but I am afraid it will fall on deaf Pahrumpian ears.
Don’t forget that Bush also instituted two other unfunded mandates. The No Child Left Behind, and Medicare Part D. Neither one of these were paid for.
Also, part of the reason why the deficit has increased under President Obama is because now the wars are actually on the books. During Bush’s eight years of failure, they never counted the wars as part of the deficit.
Let’s take a look at the Dow Jones average shall we? Under Clinton, the Dow went from 3000 to 10,400 by the time he left office. That’s an increase of almost 250%. When the disastrous Bush calamity was over, the Dow was below 7000. A 35% loss to go along with the big fat zero in private employment gains. Now the Dow is higher than it has ever been at over 13,600.
So someone please remind me of how the Democrats are bad when it comes to the economy?
Democrats are always for more spending, and using the word “Neo Conservative” is so 2003. Blaming Bush and holding up Clinton as a model is wrong headed, Clinton did NOTHING to reduce the deficit, he was simply lucky enough to be in office when the dot com craze was making people billions and 20 year olds with dot com addresses buying mansions and yachts every other day. Thats what generated tax revenue and helped give us a surplus. That was not a real economy, and if you remember the bad times started right at the END of the Clinton Administration.
Obama has had 4 years to straighten out this mess, While Romney is not a perfect choice by a long shot, he does have the business background that Obama is sorely lacking. Who knows, perhaps he can fix this mess.
The business experience Mitt Romney has is as a corporate raider of vulnerable companies with cash and salable assets. Romney and company milked the companies then let them go bankrupt or closed plants and shipped job overseas. Not a business model that would be good for our country. You say Obama had four years to straighten out the mess left by the Republican administration of Bush/Cheney. This was no ordinary….run of the mill mess. There have been two catastrophic economic calamities in the last 100 years…..the 1929 Great Depression and the 2007-2008 Great Recession….both caused by Republican administrations that allowed greed and abuse to takeover….Harding,Coolidge and Hoover in the first, and Bush/Cheney in the second. And, the second would have been a Great Depression,but for the social safety nets in place….Social Security….Unemployment Benefits…..Food Stamp Program….and Medicare. It took twelve years and World War II to end the Great Depression. Do your research. EM Frank
Roger, voting for a Republican is definitely going down NOT up. But don’t worry. Even with all the fanatical Republicans and Romney’s outright lies, enough of the country are smart enough to vote for Obama. I have no doubt he’ll be there for another 4 years.
So let me get this straight. According to Roger, Bill Clinton should get no credit and George Bush should get no blame. Oh and of course, Obama is responsible for everything from the Titanic to the Great Chicago Fire to the dinosaurs going extinct.
Got it. Thank you.
@E.M. Frank
Obama bailed out the banks and wall street. Little was done to to help the people losing their houses. His green investments in Solyndra and Compact Power that never even built one battery that could be used in a volt were just money down the drain. Obama is an amateur, a first term senator who voted present most of the time and spent the last half of his tenure running for president. His dismal performance in the debate against Gov. Romney should let you you know that he can’t speak with out his teleprompter and he can’t do what a president has and needs to do.
He’d just rather play golf or go on another vacation and soak up the salary.
“Inheriting the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, the Obama administration has had to spend $4.9 trillion to stabilize the U.S. economy.”
Define stabilize. They didn’t stabilize anything, they handed the big banks all that money so it could manipulated the stock market in their favor. There is a lot of HFT’s that are illegal and the SEC turns a blind eye.
Bernanke has been printing money hand over fist and lets talk about that as we have some inflation going on and those falling prices at Wal Mart haven’t been falling that much have they.
Obama has no plan to fix anything except destroy the middle class and increase the people on welfare and food stamps, those in his voter base.
Companies are going to cut hours or lay off employees when the Unaffordable Care Act kicks in in 2014.
You democrats are going to suffer the spoils of your vote on November 6, 2012 and us Republican and Independents will also suffer and out country will never be the same again.
Um Laslo, I hate to break it to you, but the Wall Street bail out was done under BUSH. Not Obama. But whatever you do, don’t let facts get in the way of your hatred.