This is what's wrong with politics today.
Obama says something obvious -- that Reagan was a "transformitive" President, and that the Republican Party introduced far more ideas into the political discourse than the Democratic Party during the 1980s and early '90s -- and he's excoriated by his line-toeing Democratic opponents.
Without getting too complicated here, I will give you a clear, obvious, nonpartisan report card of the economic policies of the Presidents who have served in my lifetime:
Kennedy: B (the first supply sider; generally a success)
LBJ: D (never met a spending commitment he didn't like)
Nixon: F (anyone remember the wage-price freeze? disastrous)
Ford: F (even better: "WIN" buttons on every lapel. It stood for "Whip Inflation Now." Perhaps the most asinine economic policy ever. We'll kill inflation by a patriotic appeal for not raising prices! That'll work!!)
Carter: F (stagflation, fought by more priming of the Keynsian pump, resulting in mortgage interest rates of 12+ percent, resulting in a deep recession)
Reagan: A- (restored some sanity; rationalized the income tax structure; relieved a crushing tax burden; the "minus" is for failing to control government spending as promised, but it's hard to find much fault here given what came before him)
Bush I: C (read my lips: a tax increase at the end of the normal growth cycle = recession)
Clinton: A- (if Reagan was a right place/right time guy, I guess Clinton was, too. Reaped the peace dividend, but I can't complain; good for him; implemented a fairly sensible tax increase, left fiscal policy in far better shape than where he found it)
Bush II: C- (tax cut? O.K., fine. Total inability to control government spending, even though he controlled the "small government" party that in turn controlled both branches of Congress? Inexcusable.)
No, the President is not solely (or even primarily) responsible for the economy. But look at what I just did, and try to divine some kind of political agenda in it. You can't. Am I a brilliant person, that one in a million who can see through the biases to get to the truth? I hope not, but when you read things like those said in this exchange, it makes me wonder ...
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