Hope for the New Year
January 30, 2012 at 5:18 PM
By CAROL VOYLES
At last. After three decades of debt accumulation and a fiscal meltdown, we’re
paying close attention to the bottom line.
In the process of insisting upon government accountability, more of us may
discover that the “Reagan miracle” rests upon statistics gleaned from the upside
of an economic cycle. The bottom line is that Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts contributed
primarily to tripling our nation’s debt.
We recovered from a recession; but tax cuts didn’t create more jobs. Growth
rates trended downward, and Reagan ranked fourth in job creation behind three
Democrats, including Carter. Bush was last, in spite of our lowest tax rates
since the Depression.
Coincidentally, Republican administrations ushered in both the Great Depression
and the Great Recession. Three Republican administrations generated $9 trillion
in debt attributed primarily to tax cuts, the lion’s share of our current $15
trillion debt.
Democrat Bill Clinton produced the only balanced budget. He raised taxes, created
the most jobs, and passed a surplus to George Bush.
The primary source of $4 trillion in debt amassed under President Obama was the
revenue loss of our worst recession since the Great Depression. Economists agree
that the stimulus, less than one quarter of that amount, prevented a depression.
There’s cause for optimism. Obama is getting better results two years after the
stimulus than Reagan had two years after his tax cuts, a feat considering the
magnitude of the recession Obama was handed. In 1983 Reagan had a 35% approval
rating and 10% unemployment
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