By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 4:20 PM PT
Campaign Trail: Lamenting the healthy U.S. economy, a certain senator from New York says "it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush." But the Clintons' brand of soap always seems to be a mix of sleaze and socialism.
Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spread doom and gloom about an economy that has produced more than 8 million new jobs over the past 50 months amid a powerful economic expansion.
Hillary has been pushing the theme that being first lady for eight years gave her the experience that will make her a good president.
"Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families," she said in an obvious negative reference to her opponent, Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill. "And they cannot afford to keep waiting."
But what exactly is it they are waiting for? Certain expiration of the Bush across-the-board income tax cuts, and his reduction in taxes on investment, policies that caused the economy's current sustained boom?
Is the "experience" our families are waiting to reap the benefits of actually a new version of Hillary's 1993-94 attempt to impose socialized health care on America?
The cleaning up that Hillary claims her husband undertook is a myth. The record shows Bill Clinton inherited from President George H.W. Bush an economy already in recovery.
It also shows that two terms of Clinton Masculinus left George W. Bush in 2001 with an economy already in a downturn.
It wasn't his income tax rate increases or sage words from Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin that produced Intel's Pentium chip and the Internet or the rest of the technological revolution behind the 1990s boom. The seed capital for it all came largely from the low-tax policies of Ronald Reagan years earlier. (Note from Norm: Why does it take the media so long to catch up with me? I’ve been saying this all along. And if you care to go back and check the Wall Street Journal’s economic writers, they all proclaimed that the recession that began in March right after president Bush took office, was a direct result of President Clinton’s tax increase just prior to him (Clinton) leaving office (that was in November after the elections). Further, if you want to check the record, that was the largest tax increase in the nation’s history (at that time). Pelosi and Company have plans for yet a larger increase. Don’t kill the messenger for delivering you the facts.)
Bill Clinton, in fact, never succeeded in getting passed into law what he touted as his vital "jobs bill," a pork-laden $30 billion fiscal stimulus package; only a fraction of it, $220 million, was ever enacted.
Yet government spending is clearly what Hillary's White House job experience would translate into. Her energy policy, for instance, consists of a $50 billion alternative fuels fund and $20 billion worth of new "green vehicle bonds" funding intensified gas mileage regulations. (Note from Norm: Even the un-informed know that you cannot legislate technology…this is just a money scheme to generate fines for not complying with the law. Don’t believe me? Just ask BMW, et al and ask them why they had to pay $26 million dollars in fines for not producing better gas mileage. BMW, et al could care less about the insane laws, they just pass the cost onto you the consumer. Again, don’t kill the messenger for delivering the facts.)
But businesses won't have to worry — if they can grease the lady's palm. Corning, Inc., Western New York state's stalwart Republican Party corporate donor, found that out in 2004 when China threatened a 16% tariff on Corning's fiber optics products.
By having the Red Chinese ambassador to her Capitol Hill office, Hillary apparently got the Communist government to drop the duty. But it seems to have cost Corning executives $46,000 in campaign contributions.
Sleazy deals and big spending are well-remembered from the days of Hillary Clinton's other half. That kind of experience is no recipe for continued economic health.
© Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All Rights Reserved.
Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
"It's Obama!"
ReplyDeleteA couple of weeks ago, Hillary Clinton's camp let it slip out that they had some dirt on Barack Obama, but they were not going to talk about it in the spirit of maintaining "unity". That kind of reminded me of the old "protection" scheme used by mobsters to protect businesses from....THEM. Well, now the pledge has been broken. Hillary's campaign, seeing Obama take the lead in the Iowa polls, has now "broken" the contract. Howard Wolfson, Clinton's campaign whatever, is now charging that Obama is running a slush fund with his so-called Hopefund-using it to reward local Democrats who give him their endorsement. Of course, if you live in Chicago, you probably know that Obama has had a very questionable financial relationship with local racketeer, Tony Rezco. But the mere fact that Clinton would attack anyone for questionable financial dealings is..well, rather stunning in its hypocrisy.
It doesn't take a political junkie to know that ever since the days of the Clinton administration, the Clintons have had a series of scandals relating to their sources of cold hard cash. If one wants to claim that Charlie Trie, John Huang, Johnnie Chung, the Riadys and all the others were only connected to Bill, go ahead. But what about the Hasidic Jews in New York who were pardoned by Bill as their community delivered almost all of the their votes to Hillary in her Senate campaign, a community that had previously always voted overwhelmingly Republican? What about this Norman Hsu character, who was recently locked up? What about all those cooks and dishwashers in New York's Chinatown who have been donating thousands to Hillary's campaign. Go ahead, Hillary. Throw as mud at Obama as you can-and watch it come flying back.
This may turn out to be the biggest goof by Hillary since the song and dance she put on about drivers licenses for illegal aliens. Anyway, it looks like the Republicans may be able to sit back and watch the fun as voters are reminded what a vicious and corrupt character Hillary Clinton is (as if it were necessary).
gary fouse
fousesquawk