All around the nation, Americans waited in long lines to pay tribute to the great President, a fiscally conservative national leader remenbered fondly by big business for his strong economic values. The Gipper? Nah, I'm talking Bubba - President Bill Clinton, the last conservative. And in today's New York Times, Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow at the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis, worked in the White House under President Ronald Reagan and in the Treasury Department under President George H. W. Bush, urges his fellow conservatives to pay tribute where tribute is due.
Writes Bartlett: "...conservatives should rethink the Clinton presidency. At least on economic policy, there is much to praise and little to criticize in terms of what was actually done (or not done) on his watch."
The numbers, say Bartlett, are stunning:
"Bringing the federal budget into surplus is obviously an achievement. After inheriting a deficit of 4.7 percent of gross domestic product in 1992, Mr. Clinton turned this into a surplus of 2.4 percent of G.D.P. in 2000 — a remarkable turnaround that can be appreciated by realizing that this year's deficit, as large as it is, will reach only 4.2 percent of G.D.P., according to the Congressional Budget Office."More important, from a conservative point of view, Mr. Clinton achieved his surplus in large part by curtailing spending. Federal spending fell to 18.4 percent of G.D.P. in 2000 from 22.2 percent in 1992. Although he raised taxes in 1993, he cut them in 1997. He even reduced the capital gains tax — something his predecessor, George H. W. Bush, tried but failed to accomplish.
He also cites Clinton's welfare reform, support for free trade, and appointment of Alan Greenspan to the Fed as moves worthy of adding Bill Clinton to the fiscal conservative Hall of Fame. And GWB? It's the Hall of Shame, according to this fiscal conservative: "Mr. Clinton's Republican successor has caused the surplus to evaporate, raised total federal spending by 1.6 percent of G.D.P., established a new entitlement program for prescription drugs and adopted the most protectionist trade policy since Herbert Hoover."
Vicious, fun, delicious, and correct. Hey fiscal conservatives (Tom K., Fitz that's you) I know you hated the Clinton years, but you can't argue with the results, eh?
