Incredible! Republican quotes on Clinton's 1993 stimulus bill and the Depression it will cause

[mwb970]

David Waldman at Congress Matters has compiled a lengthy list of doom-and-gloom republican reactions to Bill Clinton's 1993 stimulus plan, which not a single republican voted for. The plan, once passed, led to the greatest period of peacetime prosperity in American history: record high wages, record job creation, record low unemployment, budget surpluses, etc. But that's not what the loyal opposition was saying at the time:

From the Files by David Waldman
(Congress Matters, February 15, 2009)

Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), CNN, 8/2/93:
Clearly this is a job killer in the short run. The revenues forecast for this budget will not materialize; the costs of this budget will be greater than what is forecast. The deficit will be worse, and it is not a good omen for the American economy.

Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), GOP Press Conference, House TV Gallery, 8/5/93:
I believe this will lead to a recession next year. This is the Democrat machine's recession, and each one of them will be held personally accountable.

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH), 5/27/93:
The votes we will take today will not be soon forgotten by the American voter. (They) will lead to more taxes, higher inflation, and slower economic growth.

Rep. Jim Bunning (R-KY), 8/5/93:
It will not cut the deficit. It will not create jobs. And it will not cut spending.

There are many more such quotes at the link. The statements sound exactly the same as today's obstructionist republicans as they try to prevent the president from saving the country. They never learn, do they?

[ixion]

1. absolutely they were wrong, as usual... however, one thing to note

is that we should have learned not to create bubbles, rather than trying to create one after another.

[mwb970]

2. They even had clever posters about the hard times to come.

At the place I worked in 1993, the department secretary had this picture (taken in SC, where else) posted outside her office:



I don't remember how far along the ensuing boom time had progressed before she quietly removed it.

[zbdent]

3. It's amazing ... the "liberal media" can dig up all kinds of clips and things ...

Hillary "dodging gunfire" on an overseas visit with Chelsea ...

Al Gore "inventing" the internet ...

Michelle Obama's thesis ...

Barack Obama smoking ...

Barack Obama's appearance on a local news show in 2000 ...

but ...

can't find Rush Limbaugh, commenting on the upcoming election in 2000, saying that if Bush won the popular vote but lost the electoral college, he'd have some legal actions he could take ...

can't find one of the few press conferences Bush gave when he said "I'm not that concerned about him (Osama bin Laden)" right after he essentially called John Kerry a liar for mentioning that ...

etc ...

[florida08]

4. excellent post

republicans are running the Newt Gingrich playbook again. But this time the country gets it. Polls show that the country believes the new president is trying hard to work with the GOP but they are not reciprocating. Obstruct..pretend fiscal conservatism..criticize. When all of this didn't work they found Clinton's weakness. Let's hope Obama doesn't have one.

[Captain Hilts]

5. They then began referring to "this failed presidency," and people fell for it. Folks here still do.

[Froward69]

6. If I remember correctly

the Stock market sputtered for a while after that. the economy started to gain speed and republicans could not keep their greed in check for very long... the stock market shot up shortly there after.

of course the republicans patted themselves on the back and won majority in 1996. THIS time around we have to keep the electorate informed as to how the republican success at the ballot box was on Bills coattails. Thus we need to keep sweeping the republicans off of Obamas coattails.

[Gregorian]

9. I think the only way we're going to accomplish that is honest media.

The horns are already trumpeting failure, and this president hasn't even begun to produce. We've got a prince in office.

Great thread.

[fencesitter]

7. In repub logic they were right.

it just took 16 years to play out. See? it really is Clinton's fault.:crazy:

[FredStembottom]

8. One teeny, tiny correction to the above:

It was my experience of those Clinton times that only certain classes of people benefited. Blue collar workers like me first began a steady, unremitting slide in our wages during those years. My hourly wage was frozen for almost 9 years during that time.

But then , the Clinton years were also the beginning of pretending that people like me had simply disappeared. We were part of an Old Economy. Our jobs supposedly went "poof" and were replaced with some kind of unspecified "digital" jobs. Instead we went "poof". Depictions of us were merely removed from all Media. This is why blue collar workers stampeded right into the gaping maws of con-men like Rush Limbaugh. We hadn't disappeared from his show. We were exalted there (as a set-up, of course, to our final elimination as any kind of force in America).

Only now that Cubicle Jobs have been affected, can we hear that America is in crisis. But, Oh the irony! It turns out that "digital" jobs are a hundred times more ephemeral than my truck-driving job! One VOIP call to India and....."poof"!

The loading docks of my world are now full of IT guys and gals doing their first ever manual labor. Credit where due: a lot of them are enduring it quite well. The can't-take-it-home-with-you aspect of these jobs is a kind of relief.... for a while.

Just a heads-up that the supposed Brand New Crisis many have now entered is actually about 20 years old! It's just that there were no outlets for folks like me to give y'all a warning.