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Originally Posted by Rudyard K
And if you woke up next to Hillary every monring???? What then?  |
Oh, jeez -- what a thought!
Actually, there's a lot I liked about Big Bill. Obviously he made a few wrong turns here and there, such as Hillary's disastrous set of health care proposals.
But he did one big thing that's widely unappreciated. In 1993, there was something of a debate going on between Bob Reich (Secretary of Labor) and Bob Rubin (policy advisor and later treasury secretary). At the time, an economic recovery was underway but was a bit weak. Reich is sort of a somewhat less radical version of Paul Krugman. He's always interested in stimulating the economy by Keynesian means, despite mountains of evidence that such efforts never produce the desired results and often inflict serious damage on an economy over time (as we're about to see).
On the other hand, Bob Rubin argued that we needed to restrain the growth of government spending in order to calm the bond markets. The term "bond vigilante" was in widespread use at the time. Deficits then, of course, were miniscule compared with today, but were of enough concern that Perot gained a lot of support when he went on TV with all those charts.
Needless to say, Rubin was right and Reich was wrong. Clinton was smart enough to see that and eventually resisted calls for more foolish "stimulus" spending.
One of my favorite comments about stimulus packages was made by Bob Kerrey, former Democratic senator from Nebraska. He said the only stimulus package he supported was the one that had been provided by his ex-girlfriend, singer-actress Debra Winger. Wise man!
Big Bill was also very lucky. A lot of clueless liberals were tossed out of congress in the 1994 housecleaning, allowing him to run against Newt's congress in '96 and take advantage of the fact that a lot of voters were beginning to decide that they liked checks and balances.
If Obama is lucky, we'll see a 1994-style housecleaning this fall. That would allow him to run against a Republican congress and blame it for things such as a continually struggling economy with high levels of unemployment. He could also constantly remind voters who like checks and balances of what happened the last time Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of congress.
If Obama's not so lucky, his 2012 opponent will be able to hang Pelosi's out-of-control congress around his neck like a dead albatross!
