Okay so we are up to Ronald Reagan.
Some facts first!
Ronald Reagan was a card carrying UNION MEMBER until the day he died.
- Reagan raised taxes twice in 1982, and then raised them again in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1987.
- Even with those seven tax increases and several years of strong growth, he still didn't get rid of his deficit.
- It took an eighth tax hike from George Bush Sr. in 1989, a ninth in 1990, a tenth from Bill Clinton in 1993, and then another economic boom to erase the deficit. Sure, a strong economy helped, but without all those tax increases the deficit would never have disappeared.
Reagan is remembered for being the first president to actually push for tax cuts from the top to expand the economy. This experiment FAILED miserably as shown above. Reagan is remembered for winning the cold war but unfortunately he had little to do with it. Russia's economy was starting to crumble before Reagan took office and Germany was also declining Rapidly too. Reagan increased the size and scope of government while in office and left office having had the highest unemployment rate in modern history since the great depression. his third year in office the unemployment rate hit 11% HOW SOON WE FORGET.
Reagan's starve the beast mentality caused all kinds
of havoc on the American economy and until he gave up on deregulation and HUGE increases in military spending we did not begin to recover.
Then Came George Bush sr.
This president was an ultra conservative that wished his policies could work. He campaigned on a NO NEW TAXES policy!! Then raised taxes when he realized that our economy would and could collapse if he didn't, President Bush Sr. was responsible for the first Iraq war which was handled well IMHO. Unlike his son who we will discuss later he raised taxes to fund the war. When George left office the economy was still healing but getting better although job growth was still very small.
We now get to Bill Clinton.
Clinton was arguably the most popular president in modern history. When Clinton took office we already had an economy that was starting to grow but Clinton put through a tax hike on the rich that caused an explosion. Job growth went through the roof BEFORE the dot com boom. That boom helped keep the economy growing he also pushed for implementing the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) that would stop the practice of firing individuals just because they or their direct family had a medical emergency. Unfortunately Clinton is also remembered for the BAD decision to have an affair with an intern (Lewinsky) however this did not stop him from having a surplus economy upon leaving office. I want to briefly address NAFTA which was NOT a Clinton initiative but a George Bush Sr. one. Clinton was against NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) Clinton Agreed to sign it only when Mexico and Canada agreed not to undercut the cost of production to lure jobs out of America.
This brings us to George Bush Jr.
George Bush Jr. became president in a cloud of controversy. He and Al gore had split the national election 50% to 50% and the entire election came down to the electoral votes held by Florida. Recounts after Recount was done but eventually Gore conceded when the Supreme court decided further recounts were to be counted. The end result is Bush took the whitehouse even though we would later find that Gore had actually won.
George Bush Jr. came into office with a government surplus and very strong economy. Job growth was steady at about 2.5 million new jobs being created every year. Bush would face some brutal history in his first year in office. He pushed through tax cuts that benefited mostly the wealthy and corporations saying this would help boost job creation, however it did the opposite when the first level of these cuts took effect at the end of 2001 Job growth began to shrink. This was further complicated by the 9-11 attack on the world trade center that sent markets into a steep decline. That decline was short lived however and we rebounded nicely until the second round of tax cuts in 2003 by this time we no longer had a surplus but a HUGE deficit. Bush was spending more than Clinton per year and had started wars in both Iraq & Afghanistan without cutting spending or raising taxes to pay for them. Our economy reacted horribly job creation hit a wall and decreased sharply, By the time Bush Jr. left office we had an 11 trillion dollar deficit a negative job growth and HUGE interest payments due on the debt that had been run up by the combination of no new revenues, a government giveaway to drug companies and the two wars.
That brings us to NOW President Barack Obama,
This President inherited a MAJOR recession and a new policy by elected republicans. President Obama (The first African American elected) Took office during the height of a recession created by the above mentioned policies as well as a deregulated bank policy that led to ease of lending in the housing market. When the economy went south those who had obtained mortgages under the relaxed rules could no longer afford their payments and foreclosures and bankruptcies went through the roof. The stock market collapsed just 8 months before Obama took office and this was responsible for HUGE unemployment across the country. Obama took the road most presidents would take when facing this situation. The same methods used by Carter, Reagan, Johnson, Bush Sr. Obama wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest and cut spending where possible. Create government programs to employ the unemployed and start rebounding the economy but this time something new happened. Every budget Obama submitted (2009,2010, & 2011) were all immediately rejected by congress. Also The number of filibusters by republicans in the senate increased to unheard of proportions there were more filibusters of democratic bills in the senate in 2009-2010 then in the previous 150 years combined, This meant that we had no choice but to continue the disastrous policies of the past administration and our economy continues to be stagnant. All this while Republicans continue to blame Obama for the mess he inherited and has been unallowed to clean up. I have watched closely and want to dispell a few myths.
1. "Obama has not submitted a plan" FALSE Obama has submitted 93 plans 3 of which were lawfully required budgets all of these plans to get our economy back on track were either killed in the house or filibustered in the senate.
2. Obama is not American born. not one but 2 birth certificates have been submitted to prove beyond a doubt that Obama is an American CITIZEN and this NON-ISSUE has cost us alot of time that could better have been spent allowing Obama to help the recovery process.
3. The Stimulus failed. FALSE The office of Management and Budget found that the stimulus saved and or created 3 million jobs and helped GM and Chrysler stay in business both are repaying the loans on or ahead of time and both have hired new employees.
4. Obamacare kills jobs. Actually this is misstated as Obamacare will allow many to retire who would have needed to keep working to keep their health benefits. It also will expand the health care industry because the government option is not part of it so private health insurance companies will be increasing their number of insured and thewrefore will need more employees to handle the expansion.
There are plenty of other myths such as the debt limit increase allows for more future spending. FALSE The debt limit increase allows us to pay bills from our past.
This argument will continue to rage until after the 2012 election. I am sure.!!!
Please remeber that FACTS MATTER!
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