Joecool44
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Cheney/GW executed the worst presidential pass-on since the great depression - Housing/banking crisis, bankrupt US auto industry, CEO corruption gone Amok, a severely depressed stock market, high unemployment, 2 wars, and much more. Before Obama put his hand on the bible, the deficit was approaching $1.4 Trillion. After he cleaned up these messes, the deficit started dropping like a rock, and it ended up less than half of the inherited $1.4 Trillion.
https://www.investors.com/politics/...ill-not-tax-cuts-caused-the-financial-crisis/
During Monday's presidential debate, Hillary Clinton weighed in on the 2008 financial crisis, blaming "tax cuts" during the Bush years and implying that deregulation was also to blame. It's another example of the whoppers Hillary Clinton and other Democrats tell about the recession they caused.
If a gold medal were awarded for chutzpah, Hillary Clinton would surely be a multiple winner by now.
"Well, let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago," Clinton said. "We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off Wall Street, and created a perfect storm."
To be as kind as possible, the idea that "tax policies" -- including the 2003 tax cuts — were the root cause of the financial panic is an idea espoused by no one we're aware of in the economics profession. It was those tax cuts that in fact revived the economy, which had begun failing in the waning months of the Clinton administration.
From 2003 to 2007, the tax cuts helped push real GDP up 15.2%, or more than 3% a year. And, as Avik Roy notes in a recent Forbes piece, "the wealthy actually contributed more in taxes after the 'cuts' went into effect." In 2003, the top 1% in incomes paid $256 billion in taxes. In 2007, they paid $471 billion.
The "failed to invest in the middle class" line is even better, since it is entirely devoid of meaning. Seems we had nearly $8 trillion in added government "investment," as our soaring national debt now shows, thanks to President Obama, Hillary and the rest of the profligate party she now leads.
Did that go to the middle class? Sure doesn't look like it.
But what's most interesting about Hillary's remark is it ignores the actual responsibility that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, bear for creating the financial crisis. It's hypocrisy that the Clinton Democrats, who created the housing bubble in the 1990s and 2000s with their policies, now have spun a false tale of Wall Street greed, crazy deregulation, and tax cuts as the causes of the crisis.
Here's the real story, in brief: In 1995, using the powers of the presidency, Bill Clinton turned the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act into an aggressive program that basically forced banks to lend money to "underserved" communities. That meant those with low incomes who couldn't necessarily repay a loan.