Why do repukes think Clinton caused the recession?

[Deja Q]

A morning show big-time repuke DJ, brainwashed or bought to tell every other *-enabling lie, was blaming Clinton for the recession and job losses.

(offshoring seems to be a bigger culprit, which * clearly endorses while at the same time slamming the American workers.)

:shrug:

[jean]

1. Can we make a handy list of their talking points?

Anything economy-related = bush inherited a recession that started 6 months before he took office.

(Latest one, this week)
Flu Vaccine Shortage = Trial lawyers cause this kind of problem and we've got a ticket of two Trial lawyers running for office

[sam sarrha]

2. 87% of all Republican Presidents have had a Recession during their admin's

Their FUNDAMENTAL philosophy is Totally FLAWED

[kayell]

10. Do you have a link for that - I'd like to drop the figures on a few

of my favorite economic wingnuts.

[seabeyond]

3. as clinton was leaving office his numbers were falling

it is said that we went into a slight recession that last maybe 6 motnhs and we should have been done with it. would have been interesting to see gore address the falling numbers. should have been easy to pull out. bush on the other hand made it worse with his policy of emptying the treasury ect.....

so yes, the numbers were falling but bush was incompetent in handling

[BOSSHOG]

4. Because conservatives believe

they are not responsible for anything bad. The lemmings are brainwashed to believe that. That is why conservatives do not value the lives which are being lost in Iraq. Bush has them believing it is a good thing. Their warped minds cannot fathom Clinton = eight years of peace and prosperity. The ignorant bastards who hate America (because the constitution allows me to tell the truth about them) and DO NOT SUPPORT OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ, believe they and their leaders can do no wrong.

[wolfgirl]

5. For the same

reason they believe Clinton is responsible for the flu vaccine shortage...yes, Thompson made that claim yesterday when he spoke about buying vaccine from the French.

Bush & Co. have repeatedly explained that everything is Clinton's fault...can't you keep up! (gag me!)

[shoelace414]

6. In August 2000 he was saying

"I see weakness in the economy, so we need tax cuts"

his retoric caused the friggin recession

[WoodrowFan]

7. the Clenis

because the evil CLENIS (mad laughter) is responsible for EVERYTHING bad that ever happened, ever!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. Because Clinton was a threat-a popular president-and they resented it

If Clinton could have run in 2000 he would have won hands down. The RW hates that. They tried to ruin him with the Monica thing but nobody cared. They are now trying to ruin him with whatever they can.

[Nimrod]

9. Clinton is their big failure

They did everything they could to destroy him and the democratic party along with it, and they STILL had to steal the 2000 election. They are seriously hot over this.

According to them, the economic boom and record surplus under Clinton was... brace yourself... Reaganomics.

Makes you want to slap the bastards.

[Skittles]

11. Hey Hypno

yesterday on puke talk radio in Texas they were blaming the flu vaccine crisis on Hillary Clinton. I f***ing kid you not.

[Lost4words]

12. Pukes never take responsibility for any mistake they make.

They walk on water dont you know? Lies, stealing and killing are all OK when God is on your side.

[Tsiyu]

13. The markets were scared of a *win

and started sliding after the Nov election. I recall the averages would go up if there was good news about Gore's attempt to challenge the coup. Anyone with 3/4ths of a brain knows the markets were preparing for * by cleaning house prior to his inauguration.

Anyone with any market sense at all knows the economy always goes to shit when a Repuke is in office.

[robbedvoter]

14. March 2001 was made into March 2000 by the BFEE media

In November 2001, the economic board that makes these pronouncements declared that a recession has started in March 2001 (and was "going away).
Many papers simply changed the year - I believe even Was post did the typo. Bush& Cheney did with it the same stuff as Saddam/911: it happened/we never said that

[EV1Ltimm]

15. Have Republicans taken responsibility for anything ever?

Bush spent the entire campaign in 2000 talking about how the economy was "softening" and we were headed towards a recession. He brought pessimism to the economic outlook and adversely affected consumer confidence.

Damn Clinton.

[TahitiNut]

16. The "ownership class" vs. the "working class"

The specious 'reasoning' behind this claim is the hyper-inflated stock market. Right-wingers 'buy it' because they both fail to comprehend the fallacies underlying 'supply-side' enronomics and because they want to believe it. (Never underestimate the power of self-delusion.)

There is no question that the equities market was inflated beyond reason, with stocks selling at P/E rations above 30 when 15 is reasonable. Why? Partly because of the fundamental definition of 'inflation' (too much money chasing too few goods), partly because our economic policies have favored the wealthy "ownership class" for 25 years, and partly because the economic system relative to the equities markets is broken.

What do I mean by the last one? Well, it'd be one thing if 'investors' merely realized a smaller return, or even a loss, when too many 'invested' in the idiocy of the Greater Fool Theory. Such a condition would be self-correcting: when they lost, they'd stop doing it. But they don't.

What often happens when a publicly-traded company becomes over-capitalized is that it's merged with or acquired by a labor-intensive company (with a protected 'market') and the inflated market capitalization is translated to 'goodwill' on the balance sheet. When this occurs, the amortization of goodwill is used to escape taxation (shifting the costs for even the regulation of equities markets onto the shoulders of those who work for a living) and the labor force is coerced into accepting lower compensation for the wealth they create. This happens despite the fact that the equities markets are now systematized to preclude more than about 1% of the money 'invested' from reaching the enterprise in which the equity is vested. The lion's share of profits from the equities markets go to the investment banks, brokerages, and huge private investors - i.e. the wealthy.

When losses are incurred in the equities markets, they're incurred by those with the least control over their equity interests who also have the least ability to bear the burden of the loss: pension funds, insurance reserves, and mutual funds. People invested in these have no voting power over the equities in which their interests are invested. They're proxied to management, giving the executive management effective ownership control. And the Fascist-Republicans want to increase the degree to which the the vampires of capitalism feed on the diminish blood supply of the working class. The 'privatization' of Social Security is the prevalent example of this outright predation.

Nowhere is is more evident that we're a Fascist nation than in this area. It's the socialization of the costs of global enterprise and the narrow privatization of benefits. Corporate welfare, bailouts, S&L-like subsidies ... all feed at the public trough. We're currently subsidizing the profiteering of oil. For about $50 billion in annual oil and gas imports, the public is paying more than $150 billion in "defense" costs. This makes the effective cost of a gallon of gasoline over $8/gallon ... at the pump. The profits on that all accrue to the most wealthy - globally.

[Blue Wally]

17. There is some truth to it

In the latter half of 1998, the stock market had a phenomenon known as a "stealth bear market". While the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ were trending up, the really broad based market indices were stagnant or trending down. This was camouflaged by the dot-com boom and bubble. Since the stock market decline usually presages a recession, one was coming whether Gore or Bush won. Then the market got hit with both the dot-com meltdown and the Enron-Global Crossing-Tyco scandals. The Bush tax cuts really hadn't hit government income. The 1999-2000 surplus was a figment of the smart money cashing in their capital gains and running (and paying taxes on those capital gains). That is why the various state's income tax takes are down even though they haven't cut their rates. Everybody figured the capital gains would go on forever and upped their spending to treat that as the norm instead of "windfall" money. Unless we have virulent inflation, I am not sure there is anyway the Dow will hit 20,000 in the forseeable future. Virulent inflation, painful as it might be, is the only way to get rid of the national debt.