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Mark Shields: A Look Back at Presidential Records
The overriding issue of the 2010 campaign can be boiled down to the same three words that then-Secretary of State Jim Baker used in 1991 to justify sending U.S. soldiers and Marines to drive Iraqi occupying forces out of oil-rich Kuwait: “Jobs, jobs, jobs!”
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the two most recent chief executives before Barack Obama, each held the White House for eight years, and each, in his first year, persuaded Congress to pass his own bold, controversial tax and budget plan.
In 1993, Clinton’s deficit reduction package was branded by the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Archer of Texas, as “the largest tax increase in the history of the human race.” Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who would shortly become the first Republican House speaker in 40 years, made this case against Clinton’s deficit-reduction bill: “The tax increase will kill jobs and lead to a recession, and the recession will force people out of work and onto unemployment and actually increase the deficit.”
Of his own big 2001 tax cut, Bush would personally claim credit — in a re-election campaign TV commercial — for having provided “the largest tax relief in history.”
Let’s look at the respective eight-year records of Clinton and Bush as economic stewards.
From Jan. 20, 1993, to Jan. 20, 2001, the Clinton years, the number of private-sector jobs in the United States grew to 111,634,000 from 90,820,000. That is an increase of nearly 22 million jobs in the Democrat’s two terms. Gingrich has never been more wrong.
From Jan. 20, 2001, to Jan. 20, 2009, the Bush years, private-sector jobs in the United States actually fell to 110,961,000 from 111,634,000. There were 673,000 fewer Americans earning a living in a private job on the day Bush left the Oval Office than there were on the day he entered it.
Consider this: More private-sector jobs were created during the eight Clinton years than had been created during the 12 preceding presidential years of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Adding in the younger Bush’s negative eight years, Clinton’s leadership — in eight years — was obviously responsible for creating more private-sector jobs than the last three Republican presidents, collectively, were able to create in their combined 20 years in the White House.
But what about the Republican Party’s “fiscal discipline” mantra? Clinton’s “largest tax increase in the history of the human race” led to the nation’s moving in just eight years to a U.S. budget surplus of $236 billion from an inherited 1993 budget deficit of a then-record $290 billion — with the nation’s two first balanced federal budgets in 40 years along the way.
But didn’t the penny-pinching Republican Congress force Clinton to toe the line on the budget? That would be the same tough-as-nails Republican-controlled Congress that Bush so dominated throughout much of the first six years of his presidency. During Bush’s two terms of tax cuts and spending sprees, the $236 billion budget surplus he inherited exploded into a budget deficit of $1.414 trillion! On standing up to deficit spending, Republicans showed themselves to be a tower of Jell-O.
Financing those big budget deficits through heavy borrowing from foreign governments and interests can potentially compromise national security and U.S. autonomy. When Clinton left the White House, China held $73.8 billion in U.S. government debt. By the time Bush exited, China’s holdings had increased more than tenfold to $746.3 billion. Debtors, as a general rule, don’t go out of their way to publicly tick off their creditors.
This year, before they tell you what they’re going to do, make them explain and defend what they did the last time.
— Mark Shields is one of the most widely recognized political commentators in the United States. The former Washington Post editorial columnist appears regularly on CNN, on public television and on radio. Click here to contact him.
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» on 02.21.10 @ 04:40 AM
Republicans have conned America since the days of Reagan with the “Two Santa Clause” theory . Spend freely , deceitfully blame “government” , then make people feel good by cutting taxes to the top .Trickle down ,......remember ? Now we have to pay it back or fail as a state . After the Conrad/Gregg bill ran into the GOP wall of block and blame , by executive order the President now has put together a bipartisan panel to get legisltors moving on deficit reduction . Even this action meets with GOP resistance including bombast from some Noozhawk opinion piece authors . Sorry , trickle down is voodoo and there aren’t two Santa’s .
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» on 02.21.10 @ 03:04 PM
Mark,
Check your history. At the end of the Clinton Administration, this country started diving into a recession the the Bush adminsistration turned around even though, shortly after taking office, we were hit hard on 9/11.
Then, we had Katrina and two wars.
I am not saying Bush was a saint and Clinton a pile of dung. No, they both had pros and cons. I have actually grown to see Clinton wasn’t as bad as I thought and Bush wasn’t as good as I thought.
But the recklessness of the current Democratic leadership along with the bait and switch of the Obama administration is certainly pushing us to a financial disaster this world has never seen before.
Also, check Clintons records. He tried to turn around the problems with the Home Lending problems and he was defeated by people like Barney Frank
Even Bush and McCain amongst others tried to change the lending rules. But, again Barny Fran and his Minions boldly defeated them.
If you want to talk about Bush’s exploding of the deficit. He did in 8 years (after the costs of 9/11 (jobs, businesses, clearing the debris, health benefits etc.) Katrina and two wars) what Obama, Pelosi and Reid and their Democratic Sheep have done in a single year.
Be honest with yourself and the people reading your articles. Call a Spade a Spade.
As long as we continue to rewrite history according to what we want to believe instead of what really happened, we will continue to be a divided nation.
The current administration as Polarized this country more that it has been since at least the Civil War.
You may also want to take a look at the economies Reagan and Bush inherited.
Reagan pulled us out of a Democratic lead sespool. Bush pulled us out of a Democratic lead recession.
Let’s try working together instead of at odds. The way I see it, we all are swiming in one swiming pool. The democrates try to “Pee” on the Republican side and the Republicans try to “Pee” on the Democrates side.
Please, everyone, pay attention. It is the same swming pool and we ar Pissing on eachother.
Lastly, if you do not understand “Trickle Down”, then you have never owned and run a business. When the top is doing well, so is the bottom.
When my business does well, my people see what rewards. Pay raises, bonuses, incentives etc. When my business falls on tough times/ tax increases, my people feel it as well.
Check your history or suffer the consequences.
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» on 02.22.10 @ 08:18 AM
Willie, get a clue first then respond. The mess we are in now began long before Reagan. It began when we as a culture decided that consumerism was what we wanted. Oh, really? And how are you Americans going to pay for what you want? Law suits? Eco jobs? Services? Government jobs? Oh, right if you are not making wealth then you are consuming it. Well Willie we decided to consume it and to the tune of $50 trillion in debt. But you be a good little partisan and bury your head in the sand my friend, the ugly truth is both parties gave their constituents exactly what they wanted, freebies whose payment they shoved onto their children’s back. This is only the beginning and it is going to be very bad.
However, to take Jim’s lead and look at what we can do, rather than point fingers, we can start the payment process by making our own stuff and paying for it with good old fashioned hard work. Most of us, Willie, already know how to do that. Most of us are ready and willing to make more than we consume, share the results of our success and lead our country out of the dark ages. But first we have to get the legal profession out of the business of getting in the way and being the biggest single parasite on our economy. Not trying to pick on lawyers or their profession but they are responsible for corroding our wealth generating business to the point of rendering the American economy useless.
Reform tort law, spend the next 5 years dismantling legislation that does little but line lawyers pockets and get back to work actually producing the things you want. No partisan rant here just a gob of common sense. If you cannot wrap your mind around that then you are no better than the lawyers and you are in the way. Lead, follow or get out of the way.
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