The bloggisphere is all alight blaming the Tea Party for the downturn in the market. They pull out all manner of “facts” to support their suppositions, but they are not truthful with their information.
It’s Reagan’s mess
While it is correct Reagan promised balanced budgets in his campaigns, he was not able to fulfill it. His tax cuts sparked growth in the economy and when he left office 8 years later, revenues to the treasury were twice what they were when Carter left office. Detractors will quickly point out that Reagan raised taxes twice in those 8 years, but they are slow to recall that $2 in spending were to be cut from every $1 raised. The cuts never took place in a Democrat controlled Congress. Reagan also caused two government shutdowns to try to get a balanced budget. The such budgets ever left Congress for Reagan to sign.
Clinton Balanced the Budget
Candidate Clinton’s budget proposal was lauded by all manner of Keynesian economics in 1992. These are the same economics who are complaining about the S&P downgrade and the Tea Party.
Clinton gave the middle-class the largest tax increase in American history and budget deficits of $220 billion a year. This plus his wife’s attempted take over of 1/6 of the American economy lead to an electorate revolt that gave the Republicans control of Congress for the first time in decades. The Conservatives cut taxes and spending and balanced the budget. No longer invited to the elite parties in Washington, RINOs thanked Newt by throwing him under the bus and slowly losing power. These same RINOs now yell at the Tea Party.
Bush Spent the Surplus
Bush was chosen the Republican candidate over the objection of the Conservatives. A Social Democrat at heart, Bush was the embodiment of tax cut and spend life crazy. The growth during his Presidency was more a left-over of Reagan era policies than his own. The spending really ramped up the last two years of his Presidency when he finally had a Congress that would not oppose him. That is when the Democrats took full control back again.
Listen to tapes of the various talk radio shows during the Bush era and you will hear people pissed off. They were holding their collective noses voting for RINOs all around the country because the thought of total Marxism running unchecked was too great. The support for Fascism’s track of the Progressive ideals was nearly too much to swallow. This culminated in the Tea Party spawning after the 2008 election. No longer bound by some allegiance to a party, they found one another and grew.
The Real Blame
Lost in all the shatter is how much S&P agreed with the Tea Party. The cuts have to be real, not just some reduction in the rate of growth. No Democrat has proposed real cuts, his Holiness Obama included. Only the Tea Party backed bill sought to cut real spending and it died in the Senate at Harry Reid’s hands. America would not have defaulted, but the crowing from the Progressives was great and they had the People well scared. Yes, the Progressive share much of the blame, but they are not the root cause. They are but a symptom of the disease.
The late comedian George Carlin was heading in the right direction with his rant on the voters. Yes, the start of this whole mess is the public. Once Politicians realized that many voters’ had their votes for sale and the Supreme Court reversed 150 years of Constitutional precedent, the race over the cliff was on. Money was borrowed and borrowed to ensure the end was not reached while they were in office. This last bunch were caught out when the music stopped. The Progressive gravy train is over. It is up to the People of America to get out of this mess; not the Politicians, not the Government, but the People. The People have the power. Hopefully they will seek Freedom and Liberty and not shared misery through Tyranny.
