What did Clinton do to create jobs? How did Bush lose them?

[booley]

I admit I got this question from a con but I think it's valid. we keep talking about how Clinton had one of the best economies in years during his admin and Shrub has one of the worst.

While I do not argue those points, what exactly did Clinton and Shrub do to create thier respective economies. How was each responable? What specific policies did exach enact that lead to the economy growing or shrinking?

After all, if we are going to argue something, we should al know the evidence for it.

Links for corroboration would be appreciated too.

Thanks

[demnan]

1. First of all

Clinton helped pay down the national debt. When that was paid there was more "easy money" available for investment. Much of the investment of that time came in the form of internet startup companies, thus creating jobs (sigh, the good old days).

When Bush came in the first thing he did was to give a massive tax cut to the rich, insuring that the nice little surplass Clinton had amassed would disappear and the national debt would increase. As money became tighter (also when the stock market went down. People pulled their money out of these startup companies. There wasn't any incentive to invest since the taxes were lower so money got tight and all those nice jobs went away.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Fiscal responsibility is one...he was on the way to pay off the National

debt and Bush nuffified that by increasing spending under the guise of Nat Sec....

[Killarney]

3. Clinton & jobs

Many reasons millions of jobs were created during Clinton's administration.

1) Clinton invested in education, health care, science and technology
2) Clinton opened foreign markets to our products
3) He reversed trickle-down economics and returned to fiscal sanity. This resulted in low inflation rates, rising wages, high homeownership, and low unemployment rates.
4) The passage of the deficit reducing legislation almost immediately led to a drop in interest rates, which spurred investment and led to an increase in the rate of job creation, wage growth and productivity.
5) made major investments in areas such as information technology, high-performance communications and computer equipment, clean energy, genetic research, including gene therapies and the Human Genome Project, and biotechnology research. Greatly increased funding to these programs which in turn created HIGH PAYING jobs.

Also, the dotcom industry was born and boomed during Clinton's tenure, but I'm unsure of whether he did anything substantial to encourage it or if it happened naturally.

[underpants]

8. PLUS the computer boom led to productivity boom

Can't be overlooked. That was a matter of timing but he didn't screw it up.

[theophilus]

15. True. Could a push toward alternative energy technology

provide an equivalent "boom". If done right it would not be a "bubble" and would result in energy independance, etc. This needs to be heralded in my opinion. The government could subsidize, as it always has but I think this would be very healthy in the long run. Any comments?

[JHB]

9. Encouraging it? Remember "Information Superhighway"?

One of the things that was done were the legal and infrastructure changes that expanded and transformed DARPANet from something that connected military facilities and college research departments into the generally-acessible Internet(add an "s" if your name is *) as we know it. (The phrase "Information Superhighway was coined to liken the infrastructure improvement needed to past public-works projects, like the highway system.)

The "market" may not have known what to do with the Internet, but Clinton & Gore helped open up the "turf" for people to find out.

[Killarney]

11. Didn't know Clinton did that.

Thanks.

[JHB]

I think that was more Gore's baby...

...something for which even Newt Gingrich credited him (before it became useful to bash Gore for "claiming to have 'invented' the Internet"), but since Gore was on the Clinton team, it was a priority and was put through.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Welfare Reform in the 90s.

Involved a two step process. First, put a limit on the number of years that a person could remain on welfare. I think it was two years. Then training programs were provided to get them ready for the workforce. As the time expired, so did the tax dollars for anything related to welfare and the poor. So that safety net was gone by the time the Bush disaster occurred.

Right now the only plan that Bush has is training for jobs which don't exist. But, if you look very closely, you'll see that old regency boards were done away with, and new ones sprung up with Bush cronies. Our public colleges are loaded with welfare kings. (And I don't mean the students and teachers.)

I'm sure I'm oversimplifying.

[Skittles]

5. Clinton actually CARED about working Americans

Bush does NOT.

[On the Road]

6. Clinton Also Moderated the Military Budget

so it became a progressively smaller part of the economy. Military spending has less flow-through to the rest of the economy than other domestic spending.

And the internet took off as a public-private initiative based on Al Gore's ground rules. Democrats should take credit for that. Corporations wanted it to remain private and be based on usage fees, which would have crippled it.

[Ironpost]

7. He gave us honesty and hope and when you have those you have

prosperity

[Sweet Freedom]

10. I could be wrong

and perhaps someone can verify or clarify...

When * implemented his tax cuts, it affected the amount of money the states received from the federal government. With less money going to the states, fewer contracts--relating to the improvement and expansion of city infrastructures--were filled. Thus, fewer jobs.

[Killarney]

12. Very true.

Many of the jobs being lost today are jobs that are directly related to the states getting less federal funding. Teachers for one.

So Bush can line of the pockets of his "base" he had to greatly reduce funding to the states. Then, in turn the states could increase their own taxes (state tax, property tax, etc) or layoff state and town workers.

[HamdenRice]

13. One monumentally stupid thing bush did that we forget ...

One monumentally, criminally stupid thing bush did that we often forget about is that even before he was inaugurated, he tried to "talk down the economy." If you recall 2000, the stock market and economy had been booming for years, and the stock market was beginning a gentle correction to more realistic levels.

But bush wanted a massive tax cut for the rich and there was little economic justification for one, given the economy was so healthy. So as president elect, and early in his presidency, he started giving regular statements to the effect that the economy was in trouble. President's can actually shake confidence in the market, and bush managed to do so. But the market correction became a collapse, which plunged the country into a recession, and lost many people who had 401Ks invested in stock tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement funds. He sapped billions of dollars from families' investments in order to justify his tax cut for the rich.

The evaporation of paper wealth caused people to pull back consumer spending which intensified the recession. Of course massive debt as pointed out by others dried up investment funds as well.

[Johonny]

14. I agree

Bush has the black cloud of negative thought around him.

[radar]

16. There are a couple notes

...At Bartcop.com about the Clinton era in "idiot speak."

*I believe the general idea is that Clinton supported programs that helped those on the bottom keep more of their paychecks to spend on the extras; gov't assistance for the bills/food/utilities so more walk-around money to spend in stores. So store employees don't have to twiddle their fingers waiting for the rich minority to appear and shop. There is a larger group of potential customers who do more impulse buying than the rich folk; and more employees were needed to handle the crowds. ...Just my simple interpretation

* A google search of Paul Krugman stuff might do...?

"Subject: RE: Politics done right"
http://www.bartcop.com/062930mike.htm
"Here is what Clinton did..."
http://www.bartcop.com/whatclintondid2.htm
"Larry The Liberal proves the Clinton Miracle"
http://www.bartcop.com/clintonmiracle-larry.htm
"Bush vs. Clinton"
http://www.bartcop.com/116chal.htm
COUNTRY DIVIDED???
http://www.bartcop.com/704final.htm
A Crash Course in Dubyanomics
http://www.uncommonknowledge.org/800/827.html

[patcox2]

17. Clinton was no hero, he encouraged the exportation of jobs.

Good manufacturing jobs were lost, real wages fell. But the economy was strong, and the tech boom was on, so overall jobs increased.

Remember, he weren't no progressive, Clinton was a committed third way DLC man, through and through.

[OneTwentyoNine]

18. General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994

That one act alone--which merely limited the time you could sue an aircraft manufacture for defects from forever to 18 years started Cessna's piston engine aircraft lines back up. They had been shut down in 1986 because of out of control insurance rates over lawsuits.

This put thousands back to work at Cessna and other aircraft plants,and not at Walmart wages either. It was sponsered by Kansas Senators and House members and signed into law by Clinton.

[Bridget Burke]

19. Neither 9/11 nor the Iraq War have been very good for jobs....

Quite a few people were laid off after 9/11; several industries were affected. And money spent on the war only enriches a few corporations; many of them hire elsewhere than the US.