The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.
~Dodie Smith
My uber liberal Uncle Barry wrote the following words...and after reading them I can't help but wonder how less defined my conservative views would be now had I not have had this Hollywood progressive guy do such a fine job of scaring any possibly dormant crazy right out of me since a wee young age. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. Our relationship is a source of great inspiration for me, inspiration that consistently procures measurable results. I am ceaselessly left dumbstruck by not only how strikingly different our views are on just about everything, but also by the realization that upon each new uncovering of any disagreement my respect and love for him is only strengthened. He's a real gem, a true individual and the coolest uncle a chick could ever ask for.
With that said, prepare yourself for some crazy.
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
-John Adams
(signer of the Declaration of Independence and 2nd President of the United States - one of the founding fathers the Republicans love to claim they revere while ignoring their actual words, thoughts, policies and deeds.)
John Boehner, Republican House Minority Leader, lectures President Obama on economics.
The 8-year administration of George W. Bush created the economic crisis of 2008 that laid waste to the world economy.
Barack Obama, while campaigning for the presidency, ran not only against John McCain but against the failed Republican economic policies of the past eight years; the same policies that had gotten us into that mess by 2008 and the same policies John McCain was peddling as a way to get us out of them.
President Obama is right today in arguing that a return to those policies will finish us off.A recent poll shows that most Americans correctly blame Bush for our economic woes. But what exactly are we talking about when we speak of Republican and Democratic economic policies? Is one really preferable to the other?Over the past 59 years – as long as I’ve been alive – we have done better economically under Democratic administrations. This is not an opinion. This is a verifiable fact. And facts are stubborn things. Anyone who cares to be an informed citizen can easily find this information. Except, it seems, for the Republican leadership.
- From 1948-2007 the annual Gross Domestic Product (a measure of a country’s overall economic output) grew 2.78% under Democrats and 1.64% under the Republicans.
- Family income growth from 1948 to 2005 was 2.6% under Democrats versus 0.4% under Republicans for the bottom 20 percent;
- This growth was 2.1% vs. 1.9% for the top 5%.
Even the rich do better under Democratic administrations. The Democrats have given us solid economic growth, more money than the GOP’s desperate cries for tax cuts can provide; tax cuts that wouldn’t be an issue if the Republicans hadn’t destroyed our economy in the first place.
Over the 60-year period of 1948-2007, income inequality trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats, thus accounting for the widening income gaps over all. The bad news for America’s poor is that Republicans have won five of the seven elections going back to 1980. If we were to follow the fear-mongering Republicans and cut taxes and slash federal government spending, the people worst impacted would be the rugged individualists in the red counties – Sarah Palin’s so-called “real” Americans.
We do not have to look far for the reasons for America’s current economic condition.
Tommy McCall, writing in the New York Times, illustrates the relative merits of Republican and Democratic economic policies. If you invested $10,000 in stock market and index securities during the 40 years that Democrats ran the country from 1929-2008, you’d have more than $300,000. The same money, if invested during Republican administrations, would yield you only $51,000 – a staggering one-sixth. If Hoover’s Administration is included, the Republican total shrinks to $11,733.
Boehner’s “Economic Plan” would increase the deficit by 3.781 trillion dollars over 10 years. This is the plan of the party of fiscal responsibility. Again, this is not opinion, this is verifiable fact. Look it up.
We can talk about globalization too, since it’s another favorite Republican rant. It turns out, though the Republicans will never tell you this, that global inequality ceased growing from 1980 to 2000 and in many respects began to shrink and that income inequalities are largest within the nations least touched by globalization. As Professor Timothy Ferris writes in his new book The Science of Liberty (2010), “Ideologues blame globalization for the world’s ills” but economists like Paul Collier know that “We need stronger and fairer globalization, not less of it.”
This may seem shocking but you have to consider that both George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan ran up huge deficits and increased the size of government, and that it was a reviled Democratic president. Clinton, who last balanced the budget and reduced the deficit. Clinton even reduced the size of government.
Reagan increased the nation’s debt from 23% to 69% of the GDP. Harry Truman shrank it 8.6% and Clinton 1.8%.
While we go into the final weeks of the pre-mid-term election cycle it is good to remember that when President Obama was elected Republicans cautioned America with regards to all the Clintonites in his administration and how following in Clinton’s footsteps would harm the country. History has proven that Clinton's policies resulted in a balanced budget and economic growth, while Bush's policies resulted in record deficits and world-wide economic collapse. We could do a lot worse than to emulate Clinton.
Boehner is apparently unaware of the irony in his words that “”Never before has the need for a fresh start in Washington been more pressing.”
We got that fresh start in 2008, Mr. Boehner. And we’re all better off for it. While things may not be great right now, they could be a lot worse. And if America listens to you, they will be.
