The Clinton Manufacturing Recession - Bush inherited this job-challenged economy.

National Review Online ^ | May 16, 2003 | Greg Kaza

[ReleaseTheHounds]

The List of Challenges left by the Clinton Administration is huge: the threat of terrorism; a military that had been budget starved for 8 years; a collapsed bubble stock market which would wipe-out $7 trillion of "paper wealth" of Americans; corporate governance problems of unheard of proportions that would shake investor confidence in American companies and result in pull-backs in investment of unheard of proportions; distrust of the Department of Justice and the Rule of Law (after 8 years of malfeasance); lack of reform of the major social programs (Social Security and Medicare) as they approach their tip-over points where they go monstrously into deficits; etc. etc.

This article properly points out the horrible manufacturing economy Clinton handed over to Bush. This is a huge piece of our employment base and the major reason for the rising unemployment in the past 2 years.

Just add this to the many reasons that it will take DECADES and GENERATIONS to clean the effects of Clintonism out of this great nation and its body politic. This is your Legacy, BUBBA!

[LuisBasco]

Your comments are as good as the article you posted.

One thing the American electorate had better get wise to is that government creates no jobs except government jobs.

With all levels (city, county, state, federal) of government increasing their taxation to satisfy a natural greed for more staffers and boondoggles I don't see where we really have a chance.

Americans look the other way while all this mugging by government is happening to them. They don't look at the phone and utility bills to see what a chunk is removed by local and federal government, and until they wise up to the ever increasing sales taxes being collected for any expenditure, they'll be in the same boat as California where the base sales tax percentage is going to be 7.5%.

Our levels of elected government work overtime to prove that over the long haul representative government commits suicide when the people have indeed had quite enough.

[DH]

One thing the American electorate had better get wise to is that government creates no jobs except government jobs.

You are basically correct but did not add that the creation of jobs created by the government to the private sector are many, many times more.  Jobs that are created by government regulations, decrees and public services.  Jobs that would  not exist except for the fact that through government regulations and red tape, they exist.  

Just look around and see how many "government made jobs" are in your local area.  These are jobs or businesses either paid directly by government checks (local, state and federal) or are in business soley due to governmental regulations and laws.

It just makes me sick every time I make that assessment!

[Non-Sequitur]

We can piss and moan about how it was all Clinton's fault as much as we want. If the job loss isn't turned around by 2004 then it's Bush that the voters will blame.

[KCmark]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Clinton was perfect and ... Oh wait, that's the other board.

Here we go. Bush is perfect and can do no wrong. Everything bad is someone else's fault. Everything good is a direct result of our policies. We never make mistakes. Yada, yada, yada.

It gets a little tired.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

I hate Clinton as much as the next fellow, but this started before even him. GHW Bush was just celebrating the tenth anniversary of SHAFTA, along with a bunch of traitors and thugs.

There's a lot of guilt to go around.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

LB: I like your logic and response. Unfortunately, too few Americans have any understanding of how our (or any) economy "works" and how government policy impacts the workings of that economy. Very sad to see the uninformed acceptance by too many of our fellow citizens of "government programs" and "government solutions" to everything when it so often is completely counterproductive and inhibiting on the growth engine of our country.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

If the job loss isn't turned around by 2004 then it's Bush that the voters will blame.

I fear that you are right -- and it reflects (as I said in another reply) how ignorant the American populace is on most things economic.

So while you may be right, I will do all that I can to continue to point to the pile of challenges he inherited -- we should NEVER FORGET... The same way we should NEVER FORGET 9-11. These events (job loss, economic malaise and 9-11) are connected and both were inherited from Bubba -- one of, if not THE worst president in the past 100 years.

[Alberta's Child]

This article is a second-rate piece of writing. I can't understand why NRO would publish an article about the "Clinton Manufacturing Recession" that didn't include even a cursory examination of why manufacturing in the U.S. is in such bad shape.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Here we go. Bush is perfect and can do no wrong. Everything bad is someone else's fault. Everything good is a direct result of our policies. We never make mistakes. Yada, yada, yada. It gets a little tired.

Gee, I'm sorry if you're a little tired... Bush has made plenty of mistakes (first Treasury Secretary, accepting phase-in of tax-rate cuts, protection of steel industry, stupid Farm Bill, less than vigorous reaction to scandals in Corporate America) but he inherited the worst collection of problems and challenges of any president since Reagan (the Carter fiasco) and when you throw in the challenges of Terrorism and North Korea, perhaps this is even more challenging.

It's "tired" people like you who succumb to the stupid entreaties of Democrat programs to address our every problem. If you spent a bit of energy supporting the people who want to get the government

off your back and out of your wallet you might be surprised how much better things might be in the long term (even intermediate term). Even I will grant you: we're not going to see a turn-around immediately.

[Just mythoughts]

That "largest retroactive tax increase in this nation's history" that algore cast the affirming vote for can itself be the fundamental cause for constricting this nation's economy.

That piece of legislation which the liars still hail for the grand economy of the 90's set things in motion.

What held things together was the Republican House holding the reins, keeping the liars from causing a complete collapse.

Clintons cooked government books and their Wall Street cohorts cooked theirs. The way things have unfolded one can only imagine what algore and the Clintons had planned for us had algore stole that election.

[rootntootn]

I believe some of the stock market woes began when klowtoon's goons went after legal industries. Like MicroSoft and the tobacco industry. Investors get spooked when the government starts witchhunting legal industries, pillages billions out of them through direct payment to trial lawywers or by shaking investor confidence. Then the klowntonians stand back and blame the inheritors of the mess. Kind of makes you wonder if it isn't a "vast left wing conspiracy".

[Princeliberty]

It is true that the current problems are
a result of Clintons policies and in fact
the real results of his policies has yet
to bear fruit-the worst is yet to come!
However, Bush is in pratice following
the same policies as Clinton.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

JMT: Great thoughts and right on the mark. The economy was expanding at >4% rate in the 4th Qtr. of 1992 (Clinton claimed: people were anticipating my election and policies) in full recovery from the mild recession caused, in large measure, by Bush's tax increase... So the recovery was stunted in large measure by Clinton's retroactive tax increase -- and tax revenues from the upper income classes that Clinton targeted DID NOT materialize for, I think, the first 2 years of the tax being in effect.

The thing that bailed out Bubba's *ss was the collapse in energy prices (in effect this was a major offset for the economy, businesses and consumers compensating for Bubba's tax increase) and the benefits of NAFTA (the only smart thing Bubba did in his first administration). On the deficit front, he benefited from the S&L crisis being essentially cleaned up under Bush (that was adding tens of billions to the annual deficit -- this disappeared after 1992 and actually turned into a surplus as the Resolution Trust Co. spun out reformed S&Ls). And you are right: the GOP takeover in 1994 brought spending discipline that the Demos never planned on (plus some tax cuts and importantly the capital gains tax cut in 1998, I believe).

It gets tiresome, but we have to keep repeating the TRUTH about that awful period known as the Clinton Administration.

[Squat]

I need help. But I think the whole economy started downward under Clinton's attack on Microsoft. Does anyone agree?

[Just mythoughts]

Remember in that collapse of the oil prices, bjclinton was calling for a $25.00 a barrel price of oil, the Russians were having a really hard time coming up with cash when the price of oil fell.

It would not surprise me if that was about that time the UN RIP OFF of "Oil for Food" program, created a blackmarket economy for those who opposed removing Saddam.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

The STOCK MARKET collapse began in March 2000 -- it specifically started the day that Clinton and Tony Blair got together and said that the promised discoveries related to the human genome and biotech advances "were too important" to the world and that any patents should be "shared with the world." That wacked the entire biotech industry and raised questions about that value of intellectual property in all industries.

The assault on Microsoft had started a year or two earlier, but the rulings on Microsoft were coming to a head later that spring. The CONTEMPT of Joel Klein and Janet Reno for Microsoft and virtually ALL PRIVATE INDUSTRY was just stunning and, I believe, chilling to investors and business leaders.

The refusal to allow Worldcom and Sprint combine (yes, it would have been a horrible combination, in retrospect, but that wasn't the reason the Justice Department didn't allow the combination) was another terrible signal that discouraged investors.

All of these things, along with the internet/technology bubble, led to the wipe-out of $7 trillion of investor "wealth" (or perceived wealth). Sorry to disagree with people who don't buy into a "wealth-effect" on our economy: you don't have $7 trillion evaporate and not have a significant impact on the economy or growth.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Your points were also right on the mark... I responded to someone else's point on the witch-hunt vs. Microsoft... That was just the tip of the iceberg... I'll never forget the "sh*t-eating grin" on Joel Klein's mug when the rulings against Microsoft were being announced... I wanted to stuff that mug up Bubba's... well you get my drift.

[ninenot]

Yeah; the article VERY carefully avoided mention of NAFTA and the WTO crap which Gingrich and Clinton stuffed down our throats.

Gingrich/Clinton "Free Trade" is great--if you are in the manufacturing sector OUTSIDE the USA.

Next big problem: the steel giants of the US will toss their un-funded pension liabilities into the Gummint's lap. They can't afford the payments.

[Gritty]

The STOCK MARKET collapse began in March 2000 --

Most of the carnage took place before President Bush came into office in late January, 2001.