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"Reaganomics? What's that?" or the Inanity of Revisionism Capitalism and Free Enterprise: Can Michelle Nunn be Trusted?
“There you go again.”
One of the most defining phrases used in a presidential
debate, this comment by 1980 GOP nominee Ronald Reagan effectively disarmed his
opponent, the Democrat incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Reagan went on to win in a landslide
garnering 489 electoral votes and 44 states to Carter’s 49 electoral votes and
6 states (plus Washington, DC).
Reagan inherited a failing economy which tanked rather
quickly after his inauguration. Working
with a bipartisan coalition in a Democrat controlled congress, he took drastic
steps to de-regulate and cut tax rates to get an ailing economy on its feet. These steps increased private sector demand
and prodded American businesses to start hiring again.
Terms such as “Laffer Curve” and “trickle-down economics”
entered the American political lexionary.
And it worked: the “Reagan
Recovery” saw post-recession annual GDP rates averaging 7.1%, as opposed to the
present anemic average of 2.8%. So strong was this recovery that the country experienced the
longest period of sustained growth during peacetime in its history, save
for one brief hiccup, stretching all the way throughout the 90s and the Clinton
administration.
Revisionism,
however, never rests.
Former
first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state Hillary Clinton lectured a
Massachusetts rally for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley last
Friday about job creation:
“Don’t
let anybody tell you, that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that
create jobs. You know, that old theory,
trickle-down economics. That has been
tried, that has failed, it has failed rather spectacularly.”
Really?
Hillary didn’t take that position when the country was still benefiting from
the effects of the evil “trickle-down” economics when she (and her husband)
were in the White House. The roar of the
crickets over at the Nunn headquarters was deafening. After all, Hillary was scheduled to stump for
Ms. Nunn this month.
(Note: Coakley is an a tight race for the
Massachusetts state house running against Republican Charlie Baker, who leads
in the RealClear Politics average poll by 2.28%. She previously ran for the U.S.
senate losing to Republican Scott Brown in 2010. The latter is now running for U.S. senate in
neighboring New Hampshire and is in a dead heat against incumbent Democrat
Jeanne Shaheen. Got it?)
Hillary’s
comment dovetails nicely with the 2012 comment by incumbent president and
Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Like Hillary,
Obama was giving an economics lecture on the campaign stump telling business
owners and entrepreneurs that they “didn’t build that business”. News to them.
But
the Hillary and Obama comments elucidate with unmistakable clarity the world
view of many Democrats and most, if not all, of those on the Left. And that is this: capitalism and private enterprise have run
their course; it is now time for government to meet the needs of the people
since neither the people nor business understand what their needs are. This
eurosocialistic paradigm of government means that government will dictate not
only that businesses hire employees but what kind of pay and benefits these
employees will receive.
The
burden of these regulations and increased taxation is of no consequence. As Hillary herself said in 1993: “I can’t go out and save every
undercapitalized entrepreneur in America.”
No,
she can’t. But what she and Obama and
rest of the Left can do is put them out of business.
And
we’re still waiting for Hillary to appear for Michelle Nunn. Back on October 3 the Atlanta Journal
Constitution reported that Ms. Clinton would come to the Peach State on behalf
of Ms. Nunn. For that stop to get put on
Ms. Clinton’s schedule, she would have had to be invited by the Nunn
campaign.
And
if Ms. Clinton was invited, then she and Ms. Nunn must share a similar world
view. Given that Ms. Nunn voted for
Obama and supports his policies, then there’s a consistency here.
Which
brings to mind a not-so-political quote:
“Everybody
knows that.”
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©
2014 Gary Wisenbaker
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