Since the Republicans instituted supply side or trickle down economics
\nduring the Reagan Presidency, we’ve seen a recurring pattern where a Republican
\nPresident sends the economy into a recession and blows up the deficit.
\nOnce a Democratic President is inaugurated, the Republicans do nothing
\nbut obstruct, offer nothing and tell us it is time for a change. It is deeply
\ncynical, destructive and arrogant. The Republicans create the problem and
\nthen they run against the solution.<\/p>\n
We saw this pattern begin in 1993 when President Clinton inherited a
\nslow growth economy emerging from a recession and a then record budget deficit.
\nPresidents Reagan and Bush41 had quadrupled the national debt during
\ntheir twelve years in office. Once President Clinton took office, the
\nRepublicans suddenly became “concerned” about the deficit and
\ndemanded that Clinton reduce the deficits they ran up.<\/p>\n
To clean up the mess he inherited, Clinton proposed to raise taxes on
\nthe wealthy and cut spending. Not one Republican voted for the 1993
\nClinton budget. Instead, every Republican predicted that Clinton’s
\neconomic program would cause a recession and increase the deficit. For
\nexample, John Kasich (then a Republican congressman from Ohio, now that
\nstate’s governor) contended that: “I feel bad for the people who really
\nare the working people in this country, people in my family, who are going to
\nget the penalties from people who don’t want to invest more, take any more
\nrisks. They’re going to lose their jobs, and that’s the tragedy of this
\nprogram. We’re going to come back here next year, there will be higher
\ndeficits, there will be more spending, we’ll continue to have a very slow
\neconomy, people aren’t going to go to work.”<\/p>\n
Just how did those Republican predictions of doom and gloom play out?
\nAs we know, they were dead wrong. What followed the passage of the 1993
\nClinton budget package was the greatest peacetime economic boom in U.S.
\nhistory. During the Clinton Presidency, 22 million new jobs were created,
\nunemployment declined from 7% to 4%, median family income rose, and poverty
\ndeclined to its lowest rate in 20 years. The Clinton budget also
\nconverted what was then the largest budget deficit in American history to a
\nprojected surplus of $5.6 trillion over the next ten years.<\/p>\n
The 2000 election contest was about what to do with this record
\nsurplus. Al Gore proposed that we use the surplus to pay off the national debt.
\nIf we had followed Gore’s plan, the national debt would have been paid
\noff by 2012. Moreover, the elimination of the national debt would have
\nallowed us to easily finance the retirement of the baby boom generation.
\nThis was the much ridiculed “lock box” to protect Social
\nSecurity and Medicare.<\/p>\n
The results of the 2000 election turned out to be disastrous (in part)
\ndue to the Ralph Nader candidacy. Al Gore won the popular vote with 48.5%
\nto Bush’s 48%. Nader ended up with 2.7% of the popular vote. If
\nNader hadn’t been on the ballot, Gore would have carried Florida and New
\nHampshire – and won the electoral vote by a 298 to 240 margin. Even
\nthough the two Progressive candidates won by a 51% to 48% margin, we ended up
\nwith eight years of George W. Bush.<\/p>\n
The 43rd President had different plans for Clinton’s hard earned
\nsurplus. Bush and the then GOP controlled Congress squandered the
\nsurplus on two tax cuts for the wealthy and two wars. As John Kasich said
\nabout the Republicans who controlled D.C. during the Bush
\nAdministration: \u201cThey blew a $5 trillion surplus. The projected
\nannual surpluses were quickly spent, unfortunately by Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n
When President Obama took office in January 2009, he inherited an
\nannual deficit of $1.3 trillion or 9.8% of GDP. Moreover, the economy had
\ncollapsed and was shedding an alarming 800,000 jobs per month. Bush bequeathed
\nto Obama the most desperate situation any President had inherited from a
\npredecessor since Lincoln in 1861 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As
\nnoted historian Jean Edward Smith wrote: \u201cRarely in the history of the
\nU.S. has the nation been so ill-served as during the presidency of George W.
\nBush.”<\/p>\n
Our current President immediately got to work and passed the Recovery
\nAct by February 17, 2009. It is the consensus of economists that Recovery
\nAct ended the deepest economic downturn since the 1930s and began the current
\nrecovery. President Obama and the Democratic led Congress followed up the
\nRecovery Act by passing the Ledbetter Act, the Affordable Care Act and the
\nDodd-Frank Act. The first two years of the Obama Presidency was the most
\nproductive legislative output since the LBJ Presidency between 1964-66.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the leadership of President Obama and the Democrats in
\nCongress, the country has enjoyed 75 consecutive months of job growth.
\nThe economy has created 14 million jobs since 2010 and the unemployment
\nrate has been reduced from 10% to 4.7%. It is the best record of job
\ncreation since President Clinton’s second term.<\/p>\n
Contrary to what you may hear from the GOP and the right wing media,
\nthese are good jobs. After accounting for inflation, middle
\nclass incomes rose 3.9 percent in 2015 to $48,768 \u2014 the strongest annual
\ngain since 1998. According to Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor
\nat the University of California, Berkeley: “It is indeed the best growth
\nyear for the bottom 90 percent and bottom 99 percent since the late
\n1990s.”<\/p>\n
The country has experienced similar progress on the budget deficit.
\nSince President Obama has taken office, the deficit has been reduced from
\n9.8% of GDP to 2.5% of GDP. (As a point of comparison, the federal
\ndeficit was 3% of GDP during the eighth year of the Reagan Presidency.)
\nThis is the fastest rate of deficit reduction since the late 1940s.
\nI like to say this is the greatest story never told!<\/p>\n
All of this hard won and significant progress would be put in serious
\njeopardy by a Trump Presidency. According to the non-partisan Committee
\nFor A Responsible Budget, Trump’s tax cuts, military buildup and wars would add
\n$11.5 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. According to
\nthis report, Trump’s policies would swiftly push the national debt to its
\nhighest level in history.<\/p>\n
Trump’s economic agenda would be similarly destructive. The
\norange hued mogul has promised a $9 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, the
\ndeportation of 11 million aspiring Americans and a trade war with Mexico and
\nChina. Trump’s threat to slap huge tariffs on imports would increase
\ninflation and cause our trading partners to retaliate and set off a destructive
\ntrade war. According to a recent report from Moody’s, Trump’s policies
\nwould cause the economy to suffer a “lengthy recession” and the
\neconomy would be “smaller at the end of his four-year term than when he
\ntook office.”<\/p>\n
There does seem to be a pattern. Democratic presidents over the last
\n35 years have inherited a huge mess of problems from their GOP predecessors.
\nAfter that, Presidents Clinton and Obama cleaned up the Republicans’ messes
\nand put us back on the right track. The issue this year is stark: Are
\nwe going to hand over our country once again to the people and policies that
\ncrashed our economy and blew up the deficit before and that will shred the
\nprogress that we’ve made? I’m confident that once the voters get the
\nfacts, the Democratic Party will have a good cycle this year. Let’s get it
\ndone!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"