Daily Archives: 2012/09/08

The fact that I’m writing more about Clinton than Obama these days does smack of some irony. Truth is, I’m only following the news cycle. I must admit, I did go back and look at the President’s speech, and like many of you I was not impressed. I found him to be unapologetic and flat, focused primarily on how lucky we are to have had him come along and be our President, but that’s just me.

Getting back to “Slick Willy”, I wanted to share a little more about what Mr. Clinton gave us during his time in the Oval Office, however this time more of the positive. The synopsis of Clinton’s second term successes is often summed up by his quick “right” turn after the 94 “Republican Revolution”. You see Bill Clinton, while he was/is no “Moderate”, did take something from both sides of the isles as a means to the end of his term. Welfare reform was mixed with daycare initiatives for working moms, and social issues were often overlooked as he moved toward spending cuts and a balanced budget. This brings me to what is clearly the big lie when comes to “Bubba”.

I am often lambasted in local publications and in person about the great Clinton era and how he also achieved a balanced budget when Republicans could not. But when I try and explain how he did it, the Dems run for the exits as if the building were on fire. Simply put, Clinton embraced and signed off on a huge (capital gains tax cut), which ultimately flooded the coffers with billions in unexpected revenue, and sped up the process to balance the budget by about 6 years, allowing it to happen in 1997. WHAT, A TAX CUT? This is just another one of those inconvenient truths #42 would rather have his “fans” overlook, among other things ;).

I just feel it’s important to have the proper perspective however, as we analyze not just the last 8 years, but the last 20. Kind of puts the whole “Bush bashing” thing in context now doesn’t it? Accordingly, Mr. Clinton left out a boatload of other “inconvenient truths” the other night. Good and bad, those “omissions” quite possibly would make Governor Romney’s approach look a whole lot more appealing than the current President’s plan for (4 more years) of the “definition of insanity”.