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Recently on WTIX's Ringside
Politics, my brother Joe (the Conservative) blamed the
ailing economy on the Clinton Administration. It seems
everything that is going wrong with our country can somehow be
blamed on Clinton, and everything that is going right (not much
by the way) can be credited to Bush. Even when things were going
right, my brother refused to give Clinton credit. He attributed
the economic boom of the 90’s to Reagan (and now we know he
didn’t even know what was going on, never mind being able to
manipulate the economy). Joe, like many Republicans, never looks
at the facts, playing the slander
game that he accuses the Democrats of playing. We have been
accused of name-calling and not backing up our cases with
facts. So here are a few facts to chew on:
Clinton enacted the Economic Plan in 1993 that jumped-started
our economy by cutting taxes on 15 million low-income families
while raising taxes on 1.2 percent of the wealthiest. Reagan or
Bush would have never done this for the American people; they
would lose too many important business contacts, campaign
funding, and votes. Clinton, like many Democrats believe that
the richest in our country owe the American people for their
success because without us they would have nobody to buy their
products. This philosophy does not undermine capitalism like my
brother would have you believe. Anytime Democrats want to
regulate big business in order to force them to be honest (we
know they are unable to do this on their own), we are accused of
being anti-capitalist. The fact is that we understand that big
business, left to their own devices, would cheat, lie and steal
anytime they could get away with it, and that is why Americans
have lost confidence in our economy.
Bush must stand up to these corporate bullies and state,
clearly, enough is enough. Instead, he is still unwilling to
look at putting a halt to the ten-year tax-cut that is predicted
to cripple our social security fund. Even though the Bush
administration vowed to not spend our social security surplus,
that is exactly what they are doing. Paul O’Neill, Secretary of
the Treasury still denies that we are or ever were in a
recession. He also denied that corporate corruption is a
widespread problem on Meet the Press this week, even though 75%
of the American people see it so. We need to impose moral
standards on our Big Business and get rid of politicians that
refuse to believe that there is a problem.
Clinton’s Economic Plan was also credited for the
combination of the lowest unemployment and inflation rates in
twenty-five years. He did this at the same time that he signed
the largest deficit reduction plan resulting in over 600 billion
dollars in deficit reduction. Even before he signed this
bi-partisan plan, he helped create over 6 million jobs in his
first two years. He also passed NAFTA and GATT, resulting in a
23 percent increase of exports from Mexico.
These were concrete policies and bills that were passed on
Clinton’s ticker. He was not just sitting idly by, trying to
reassure the American people that all will be okay. The Bush
Administration is praying that the economy will recover so they
will not be forced to put more regulations on Big Business. It
is not just regulations that Bush is against, but severely
punishing these corporate criminals. Even though he uses strong
rhetoric against corporate corruption, he is holding back on
strong action that matches his own rhetoric, and that of the
American people.
Clinton did a lot for the economy. And he did it all without
crippling our natural resources and social services. Republicans
would have you believe that we cannot have the most powerful
military in the world and simultaneously fund our public school
system and supply our most needy citizens with much-needed
services. During Clinton’s presidency he enacted bills that
improved the life style of American families. The Family and
Medical Leave Act guaranteed 42 million Americans a job after
child-birth. He also began the first big crack down on
"dead-beat" dads. He created opportunity to train
welfare mothers for jobs by granting 25 states welfare
demonstrations. He signed into law the Brady Bill which demanded
background checks and waiting periods for purchasing guns. The
Crime Bill created 100,00 new police on our streets, three
strikes you’re out, and banned 19 deadly assault weapons while
protecting 650 hunting rifles.
He did this before the hype of school shootings forced us to
take a hard look at our gun laws. Bush still hasn’t pushed for
any restrictions on assault weapons. Clinton will be remembered
as the Education President. No other President did more for
students and increasing educational opportunities for all. He
created the Student Loan Program, the Safe School Act, and
School to Work program. He instituted the Goals 2000 that gave
much-needed grants to most states for their schools. He also
started the AmeriCorps that put 20,000 volunteers in our
communities, which is still a very successful program today.
Harvey Pitt and Paul O’Neill continue to blame the poor
economy on the War on Terror, which they too happily point out
the favorable opinions on this effort by the American people.
This excuse does not take into account all the things they can
be doing to give the economy a boost. O’Neill stays over seas
when our markets are crashing, and is unable to appear
optimistic and truthful. Pitt and O’Neill have been asked to
step down by a bi-partisan group, but shrug off their
adversaries as playing politics. Whenever either of them are
cornered by a tough question about our economy, inevitably they
bring up 9-11 or the War on Terror. Now I ask you, who is
playing politics?
Are you getting tired of hearing about all the Clinton
accomplishments? I can go on, but Republicans must feel ashamed
by only focusing on the sexual exploits of our most infamous
President. I must admit I have done my homework, and could list
accomplishments in the environment, the military, and foreign
policy, but I have made my point. The Bush Administration is
threatening all these services (except for the military, of
course). They are cutting many of these programs in favor of a
larger military that is already bigger than the next five
militaries combined. Bush has continued to make excuses for big
business, never committing to a tough stance against these
corporate money mongers. So if you hear Democrats describe
Republicans as "war-mongers," "anti-family,"
or refer to them as "sleeping with Big Business" then
you can understand that this is not slander, but based in facts.
While Bush, Pitt, and O’Neill would have you believe that
everything is okay just remember one fact: The Dow Jones lost
37% since George Bush stole the Presidency a short two years
ago. Isn’t it time for a change?
See
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