Dirty Republican Secrets...
One of the great myths of our time that most Americans have bought into is that Republicans are better at managing the economy. I largely blame Carter for this one. Yet the question is, does this idea hold up to scrutiny? The following excerpt is from an article at MotherJones.com, and was written back in September 2002:
'Office Park Dads' and Economic Leadership
...Welcome to the Economic Sweepstakes Quiz. The rules are simple. Guess which president since World War II did best on these eight generally accepted measures of good economic management. You can choose among five Republicans (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and poppa Bush) and five Democrats (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton).
Which president produced:
1. The highest growth in the gross domestic product?
2. The biggest increase in jobs?
3. The biggest increase in personal disposable income after taxes?
4. The highest growth in industrial production?
5. The biggest rise in hourly wages?
6. The lowest Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment)?
7. The lowest inflation?
8. The largest reduction in the federal budget deficit?
Done guessing? Okay, here are the answers: 1. Truman; 2. Carter; 3. Johnson; 4. Kennedy; 5. Johnson; 6. Truman; 7. Truman; 8. Clinton. A Democratic sweep.
If this isn't enough to destroy the myth that the economy has performed better under Republicans, consider that the stock market has historically fared better when a Democrat is in the White House. During the 20th century, The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose, on average, 7.3 percent per year under Republican presidents. Under Democrats, it rose 10.3 percent -- which means investors gained a whopping 41 percent more. And that figure is even higher if you factor in last year's nose-dive.
What's even more frightening is to remember that it was a series of Republicans that led us into the Great Depression. So why are Republicans viewed as better at handling the economy? Well, I think it comes down to two things: 1. Jimmy Carter, and 2. Taxes.
Jimmy Carter inherited from Gerald Ford an economy that had been in bad shape due to a number of factors. The two things that people remember from that period are Interest rates at or near 20%, and Ronald Reagan's wonderful line: "Are you better off today then you where four years ago?" The largest block of voters were stamped during the 70's and 80's with the perceptions that dominate current political thinking. We watched interest rates rise, incomes flatten, and tax cut mania take hold. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan are crucial to that period.
This period also saw the rise of the still current tax-cut mania. The belief that we can have services for nothing, and that somehow tax-cuts will help us. The reality is that neither of these ideas are true. We think we are so over taxed, yet we pay the second lowest amount of taxes of the major industrialized nations. Only Japan is taxed less, and their economy is a basket case, with no clear road out. The truth is that tax cuts only serve to inflate the deficit, crate more of a tax burden on the middle class, and remove services for the poor.
Tax cuts do benefit someone. The Bush Tax-Cut of 2001 gave 43% of it's benefits to the wealthiest one percent of Americans! The recent tax-cut proposal will do the same thing. In mid 2001 we were supposed to see a surplus of $150 billion dollars, instead we saw a deficit of over $150 billion dollars. Projections are that we will see deficits of over $100 billion for the rest of this decade. We can lay responsibility directly at the Republicans feet for this one.
So what has the past year of Republican stewardship over the economy produced? What we got were tax cuts, the migration of wealth to the already rich, and endless war mongering. We also got to watch our freedoms, and liberties cut all in the name of so called patriotism. Bush continues to wag the dogs tail with Iraq, all the while playing his fiddle as Rome burns. His solution is to kill more programs for the poor, and give more money back to the rich. In the middle class, we just get squeezed. Yet we buy into the seductive lies, and give Republicans even more power, go figure...mj
postscript: A good list of the bogus 'letters to the editor' can be found at this site. You can also check out this blog for more information about the mass produced 'letters to the editor' that the Republicans are churning out. Don't be put off by the 'alien transmission' line - he's being sarcastic...I think :)
10:54:10 AM 
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