How’s That Again?

I was reading another site and I read this:

When Carter left office, just like with Clinton, the economy in America was doing okay. Inflation was a bit of a problem in the Carter years but nonetheless a Republican replaced a Democrat and things started going downhill.

It is amazing to me how some things can be casually dismissed by people who allow partisan feelings get in the way of facts. Jimmy Carter did not have an OK economy. To say that Carter had a bit of a problem with inflation is like saying that Adolf Hitler had a little problem with Jewish people, that Nixon had a little problem with paranoia, Clinton had a little problem with telling the truth, and John Kennedy and Abe Lincoln had a little problem with lead poisoning (other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?).
These are the numbers for Carter’s Presidency:

On assuming office in 1977, President Carter inherited an economy that was slowly emerging from a recession. He had severely criticized former President Ford for his failures to control inflation and relieve unemployment, but after four years of the Carter presidency, both inflation and unemployment were considerably worse than at the time of his inauguration. The annual inflation rate rose from 4.8% in 1976 to 6.8% in 1977, 9% in 1978, 11% in 1979, and hovered around 12% at the time of the 1980 election campaign. Although Carter had pledged to eliminate federal deficits, the deficit for the fiscal year 1979 totaled $27.7 billion, and that for 1980 was nearly $59 billion. With approximately 8 million people out of work, the unemployment rate had leveled off to a nationwide average of about 7.7% by the time of the election campaign, but it was considerably higher in some industrial states.
Source: Grolier’s Encyclopedia, “The Presidency” Dec 25, 2000

Now as amazing as it might seem, George Bush has very similar economic numbers as Bill Clinton did and numbers that are tremendously better than Carter had yet most liberals will tell you that this is a terrible economy. The author of the first quote is always writing about how bad this economy is and how unemployment is terrible under the Bush administration. We are always reminded how great it was under the Saviour, Bill Clinton, yet Clinton and Bush have very similar numbers and Clinton did not have to deal with the financial turmoil created in the aftermath of 9/11. This author contends that Bush would not have had to deal with it either if Clinton had been more proactive but that is a debate for another time.

One of the other myths that is touted is that the Democrats, Clinton and Carter, had us going in the right direction and that the Republicans, Reagan and Bush, put us in a recession. Bush took office in January 2001 and there was a recession by March. For anyone to think that Bush or his administration caused this is laughable. Forget the fact that it takes about 2 years for the economy to be affected by any policy decisions because even if that were not the case, there is NO WAY that an administration could have an influence on the economy in two months. It just can not happen. The recession that took place in 1982 was a result of the economic policies of the Carter administration. Like I pointed out, it takes a while for actions to have an effect. By the way, even though the other site reports the recession in the 1980s was a Republican problem, there are liberal sites that report the Carter administration, namely Paul Volker the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, deliberately caused the recession. Volcker argued that eventually this would wring inflationary expectations out of the system.

The left tries to blame the recession on Reagan’s tax cuts. The cuts were what stimulated the economy just as the tax cuts under the Bush Administration did. The left has a hard time with this because they do not want to admit that you know how to better handle your money and finances than the government does. They look at the populace as one big pool of endless money that will cure all our woes if we would just tax the people more. I believe that we already pay plenty in taxes and if our elected leaders would stop wasting the money they extort from us then they would be able to pay for all the nice give aways the left is fond of. My earlier piece showed how much money is wasted each year on projects the government should not be involved in. That piece showed how the reform of Social Security could be paid for by stopping the fraud, waste, and abuse that is perpetrated each day by our elected representatives.

It is time for America to wake up and demand fiscal responsibility from our elected officials. It is time that all the money spent is accounted for and that wasteful pet projects be eliminated. We pay enough in taxes and as long as it is spent responsibly, we should have no problems.

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Comments are closed.