Originally posted by: FleshLight
Originally posted by: rondeemc
IMHO, he was one of the greatest president in recent history. Although the scandal tarnished him, he accomplish a lot during his tenure than most of other presidents can claim
Enlighten me. What do you think he did that was so great?
Economy++?
1. Clinton's attempt at bringing "a kind of" socialized medicine to the U.S. caused the health care industry (in general) to "reduce" their annual double digit gains (~1990-1992) in the cost of drugs and insurance premiums to "only" single digit increases (i.e., the industry was affraid of massive reforms so they collectivley decides to slow down the massive annual increases in cost). It didn't get passed of course but some good came of it (e.g., Family Medical Leave Act).
2. The deficit turned into a surplus for the first time in many years. Albeit some "creative" accounting was utilized and the economy was booming. Still, neither Raygun nor the burning Bushes could find a method of "creative accounting" which would HIDE hundreds of billions of dollars worth of annual red ink from 1981 through 1992.
3. Clinton showed real Presidential leadership when he stood up to the repubs for trying to force him to sign/pass some provisions unrelated to the annual budget gap bills. The federal government essentially shut down for a brief period and mainstream America rightly blaimed the shutdown on the repubs. That was really good fun seeing the repub leadership fail when they tried to "spin-doctor" the blaim Clinton's way!
Oh...and to the repubs credit, they spent ~$100 million tax dollars to catch Clinton in a lie regarding his sex life. Gee...I'd rather get my portion of the $100M returned to me as an extra $0.20 tax refund. And lets not forget the ~$850 billion worth of tax paid bailouts for the savings and loan scandal under Raygun and Bush SR (with ~$1.5B tax dollars lining the pockets of Neal Bush and the "clients" of the failed Silverado Savings and Loan). And lets not forget about Raygun defeating the Soviets and single handedly tearing down the Berlin Wall by outspending them in defense dollars (even though the Soviet Union would have liken fallen within a few more year without us bankrupting them, and ourselves in the process.
Don't worry though, in ~10-15 years the National Debt will be "erased" (i.e., the U.S. will default on some or all of the debt and us tax payers won't owe any more). Of course interest rates will be 40% for a 30-year fixed home lone for few years but the U.S. will be forgiven and it will be back to business as usual (just like the American consumer going bankrupt and getting "new" credit a few years later). Think I'm wrong/joking...we'll see.
I could go on and on with the real repub story but I truthfully don't want to waist me time debating with some folks who think they "know" the whole story.
My advice...KNOW which side your bread is buttered on BEFORE you vote in November.