Clinton's Legacy, For Joe B

Yes it will always be, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” It will always be the dress.
It will also be 4% unemployment at the end of the second term. In 1992 before Clinton took office, unemployment was 7.5%. The economy added 21 million jobs in Clinton’s eight years from 1992 to 2000. In comparison Reagan, the hero of conservatives everywhere, in his two terms added a healthy, but not quite comparable, 16 million.
When Reagan took office deficits were running 2.5% of GDP, when he left by virtue of a combination of tax cuts and increases in defense spending they were running at 6%. (Consider that when Newt talks about his role in the Reagan legacy.) By comparison the deficits under Clinton were less than 1% of GDP. We may recall Lloyd Bentsen’s famous debate comments about growing the economy on the strength of billions in “hot checks”. Reagan did. Clinton did not. From 1998 to 2001 before the Bush tax cuts the Federal government ran surpluses. Yes, there was still debt, but it was not being increased.
Of course those were different times, when both parties in Washington were not paralyzed by piles of corrupt campaign cash and every small step forward was not met with an entrenched and deep pocketed interest. Clinton, prodded by Gingrich, passed Welfare Reform. Clinton cut taxes for 15 million grasping for the lower rungs of the economic ladder, and paid for it by raising taxes on the richest 1.2 million Americans. He also passed a funded program to get kids Health insurance (CHIP) which added about 7 million to the roles of the insured.
Joe, I know you’re really proud of what you perceive to be tweaking the libs on this page with your supposed facts, but you sound silly. Yes, we know the Republicans hated Clinton. He was dragged through the mud of his personal failures. We all remember Gingrich righteously leading the charge. A tremendous amount of opportunity for progressive change was lost as a result, but to reduce it all to the dress sounds to this observer like the faint howl of somehow who knows better, but won’t admit it, can’t admit it because it would cause the whole house of cards on which he has built his oh so fragile belief system to crumble.
Sad, really. At least you can for now point to the comparisons between Bush ’43 and Obama. Bush with his spiraling deficits, the worst job growth of any president since 1945, two wars brought to inconclusive turns without the capture of Bin Laden, a domestic policy that shredded the Bill of Rights, a foreign policy that made America look to the world like a country with no principles beyond self-preservation. Hold on to that, Joe. It should comfort you in your isolation. Take strength from the millions of others just like you as you work through your choices. Who’s leading now, again? Oh yeah! Santorum surges. He will face America’s enemies head on. He’s just scared of homosexuals. Millions of Americans are laughing at the folly of the Republican primary process, but take strength. Soon a candidate will emerge who has been able to capture 30, oh maybe, 40% of the Republican votes, and with that strength you will head into the fall to battle Obama. Oh, I’m so ascared…