Economic Performance Of Our Past Five Presidents©

                                           
By: Dan Reed - American Citizen

I continue to ask myself why U.S. Corporations, Wall Street Bankers, Wealthy People, Conservatives, and "Tea Party People" are so enraged with president Obama's economic stimulus, health care reform, and Wall Street regulations? Is it sour grapes over loosing the election? Is it racist bigotry about a black man in the White House? Or, is this something else?


So I set out to identify and compare Obama's agenda with those of four previous Presidents. I focused my comparison on three area's: Tenure, Economic Philosophy, and Economic performance.


FIRST, I looked at tenure, which represents the time each of our last five presidents spent in office. I learned that conservative republicans have governed our country for twenty of the past thirty years. Furthermore, conservative republicans have governed our country for 96 of the past 122 months!

SECOND, I examined each presidents economic philosophy. I learned the 1981 election of Ronald Reagan began an ideological war known as the "The Reagan Revolution!" This ideological war continues to this day. The battles lines in this war between conservatives and progressives are both economic and political, with each representing a much different philosophy:
a. Conservatives believe in classical "Laissez Faire Capitalism", which promotes "Small Limited Government", where capitalism regulates the economy, and government involvement in the economy is unnecessary and harmful! (Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr.)
b. Progressives believe in Keynesian Economics, which believes capitalism "is not" a self-regulating system, and "cannot be trusted to run itself"! Keynesian economists believe government needs to play an active role in the economy! (Clinton, Obama)

THIRD, I reviewed the results of each president's economic agenda during his time in office. This comparison begins in 1981, because the election of Ronald Reagan is considered to be a major turning point in the economic direction of our country. My comparison is focused on each presidents performance in six area's: taxes, spending, deficits, trade, and growth: 

Taxes - Reagan won passage of two U.S. tax policy changes in 1981 and 1986. These two conservative tax cuts reduced taxes on upper income's by more than 50% and reduced taxes by over $749 billion the next five years. These two tax laws have remained in place for thirty years! Bush Sr. continued Reagan's tax cuts. Bush Jr. cut taxes again in 2001, significantly reducing taxes on upper incomes by $900 billion over ten years. To avoid raising taxes, Reagan and Bush Sr. used social security receipts as "general revenue". Bush Sr. was forced to raise taxes to avoid the government going bankrupt.

Clinton "raised taxes" in 1993, which ended the deficits and produced a surplus. Obama "inherited" the last two years of Bush Jr. tax cuts, then passed a new tax cut for incomes under $250,000 per year, and extended the Bush Jr. tax cuts for two additional years.

Spending - Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. fueled their economic growth objectives with massive government spending on military weapons systems, global military deployments, and five wars: Granada, Panama, Iraq-1, Iraq-2, and Afghanistan. Nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan cost U.S. tax payers trillions. Bush Jr. pushed and passed a huge prescription drug bill that added further billions to U.S. deficits and the national debt.

Clinton slowed government spending by reducing Reagan/Bush Sr. military spending. Obama "inherited" two wars, military weapons contracts, and global military commitments from Bush Jr.

Regulation of Business - The Reagan administration relaxed banking regulations, which lead to the collapse of Savings and Loan banks. The Bush Jr. administration refused to enforce existing government regulations, which produced: Enron, Sub prime mortgages, OTC Derivatives, Credit Default Swaps, Credit Card Frauds, Poisoned Food, Toys, and Wall Board, Bernie Madoff Scams, and phony bank failures, which required a $800 billion taxpayer bailout!

Deficits - Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. pushed and passed large tax cuts and huge government spending. Their economic policies produced twelve years of huge budget deficits. Reagan tripled the national debt from $900 billion in 1981 to $2.7 trillion in 1989. Bush Sr. increased the national debt to $4.2 trillion by 1992. Bush Jr. produced eight consecutive years of record deficits, which doubled the national debt from $5.6 trillion to $10.7 trillion on 12-31-2008. Furthermore, Bush Jr. passed forward a $1.3 trillion budget deficit for October 2008 through September 2009, which increased the national debt to $12 trillion. Overall, the Reagan and Bush Jr. tax cuts, combined with huge government spending, increased the national debt by 1300% during their 20-years in office.

Clinton "raised taxes" and reduced military spending, which produced a $500 billion budget surplus during his eight years in office! Still, the national debt increased 33% from $4.2 trillion to $5.6 trillion. Obama's $800 billion stimulus, plus "inherited war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan", produced a $2 trillion deficit through December 2010. Under Obama, the national debt grew from $12 trillion to $14 trillion.

Trade Deficits - U.S. Trade deficits increased for thirty consecutive years! U.S. Corporations migrated overseas looking for non union, low wage workers, and no business regulations. Bush Jr. eliminated tariff taxes on imports from low wage foreign countries, which created eight years of record setting "Free Trade" deficits.

Economic Growth - Under Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr., America experienced three major recessions: a 16-month recession between 1981 and 1982, an 8-month recession between 1990 and 1991, and the current "great recession", which began in  June 2007. Under Bush Jr., millions of American jobs were outsourced to low wage countries., while Corporations across America terminated over seven million employees! General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt. The gap between the richest and poorest Americans became the largest in American history. 

Clinton's tax increases raised government revenues, balanced the federal budget, and helped create over 20 million new jobs! Under Clinton,  economic expansion was  so profound, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates eight times to "Slow Economic Growth"!  Raising interest rates created an 11-month recession between 2000-2001. In 2009, Bush Jr. handed newly elected President Obama a U.S. economy that was rapidly sliding into economic depression! Obama responded by pushing and passing an $800 billion economic stimulus. Some economists say it may have stopped the slide into a second great depression.


I began this exercise by asking why certain groups are so enraged with President Obama's agenda? After a careful review, I've concluded that most of their rage is contrived and calculated! I mean; conservative republicans have governed our country for twenty of the last thirty years! Their conservative economic policies were fully implemented during the twelve years of Reagan and Bush Sr., and again during the eight years of Bush Jr! Both times, these economic policies created enormous wealth for: Multinational Corporations, Large Banks, and Wealthy People, while significantly gutting the U.S. Economic Infrastructure!

Why were conservatives so "Silent" during the eight years of Bush Jr's disastrous economic policies, then suddenly "Outraged" about Obama's policies?


I've concluded its "Fabricated Rage"! These Integrated Groups Are On A Mission! The private sector is intentionally practicing "Scorched Earth Economics": banks are refusing to lend, corporations are hoarding trillions of dollars, business's are refusing to hire, conservatives are blocking congress, and tea party people are cooking up political strife! These coordinated actions are calculated to slow economic growth, increase unemployment, and create huge deficits! In short, these groups are using Economic Tyranny against the American people!

© This document is property of Dan Reed and reproduction requires his prior approval. Approval may be attained through an emailed request to dancar@en.com.