Clinton’s baaaaack!

He’s baaaaack! The charismatic former president was (choose one) 1. coaxed, 2. cajoled, 3. shamed 4. enticed 5. persuaded 6. sweet-talked or 7. flattered into interrupting his convalescence from heart surgery in order to make a few high-profile campaign appearances on behalf of John Kerry.

For those who are longing for those lazy, hazy, crazy days when Bill Clinton was president, when the military was keep busy with U.N. peacekeeping operations, when making war was limited to a few “surgical” missile strikes, when Middle Eastern oil flowed freely and cheaply, when vaccines were plentiful, the stock market was booming, the federal budget was balanced and Monica was on her knees, a dose of reality is needed.

Clinton’s New Economic Plan enacted in 1993 was designed to do two things: raise taxes (even on Social Security recipients) and spend more money than ever before, which would result in adding to – not decreasing – the national debt. Clinton never talked about that part because it would have made his plan extremely unpopular.

Instead, Clinton talked about reducing the deficit. He took advantage of the fact that most people don’t know the difference between the deficit – the amount of our annual overspending – and the national debt. The important thing to remember is this: If things had worked out just as Clinton had planned, we would have had deficits as far as the eye could see and, at the end of the five years covered by the NEP, the national debt would have increased – not decreased – by $1.5 trillion.

When Clinton took office, the economy was rebounding from the 1990-91 recession. However, the higher tax rates enacted in 1990 had slowed the rate of economic growth, which suppressed tax revenues and, as a result, large deficits persisted.

Clinton’s silver lining was the 1994 Republican revolution, which resulted in the GOP takeover of Congress. These new leaders had a mandate from the people to cut the size of our bloated government. Clinton fought them every step of the way, even shutting down the government a couple of times in 1995, in order to keep from enacting a budget plan that would reach balance eventually.

However, the 1994 election mandate did have its effect. By 1996, a full 512 out of the 535 members of Congress – had a record that reduced, not increased, overall discretionary outlays.

In 1997, there was another important change. The GOP – over the strenuous objections of the Clinton administration – cut the capital gains tax rate. Investment boomed, the high-tech/Internet revolution began, the economy shifted into high gear and tax receipts soared. As a result, the budget was balanced in spite of – not as a result of – Bill Clinton.

One more thing about the 1993 NEP: When pressed as to why his economic plan called for only a slight, temporary reduction in the amount of our annual deficit spending, the excuse offered by Clinton was “those out-of-control entitlements programs!”

When people think of entitlement programs, they think of something they pay into and are, therefore, entitled to receive, such as Social Security and Medicare. However, an “entitlement” can be anything. It is something that Congress simply puts out of reach of the annual give-and-take of the appropriations process. It is tantamount to putting a program in a space capsule and launching it toward the spending stratosphere.

What most people don’t know is that buried in the1993 budget deal was a brand new entitlement, which was a payoff for Hillary Clinton’s pal, Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund. It was for child vaccinations and it had an initial payload of $585 million. However, the government already had a child vaccine program in place – though not an entitlement – and, at that time, it had a $150 million surplus. In short, we simply could not give any more vaccines away.

The waste in this new entitlement was bad enough. However, when the government corners the market on something, the market soon disappears. Therefore, the incentive for drug companies to come up with new vaccines simply went away.

There are other more vivid memories of the Clinton years, such as the selling of the Lincoln Bedroom, ignoring the growing terrorist threat, the gutting of our intelligence agencies and the hollowing out of our military.

So, forgive me if I don’t get all misty-eyed when I reflect on these years. Instead, I shed real tears over the lessons we should have learned from having elected a man who did not know the meaning of the word truth, who put symbolism over substance and chasing babes over the best interests of this country and the bottom line.