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.
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.