‘Before the 2006 midterm elections in which Republicans ultimately took a clobbering, Sen. Mitch McConnell asked President Bush in a private Oval Office meeting to pull some troops out of Iraq in order to boost the GOP’s chances, Bush reports in his new memoir.
And in the same month – September 2006 – that McConnell made his private request, he publicly blasted Democrats for calling for a reduction of troops in Iraq, saying that their position endangered Americans.
“The Democrat leadership finally agrees on something – unfortunately it’s retreat,” McConnell said in a Sept. 5, 2006, statement in response to a Democratic letter asking Bush to change his Iraq policy. Using blistering language, McConnell continued:
“Whether they call it ‘redeployment’ or ‘phased withdrawal,’ the effect is the same: We would leave Americans more vulnerable and Iraqis at the mercy of al-Qaeda, a terrorist group whose aim – toward Iraqis and Americans – is clear.”’
Straight from the Horse’s bleeep, ghostwritten of course.
And a lot of people don’t remember that the unemployment rate was over 10% in 1983, over 2 years into Reagan’s 1st term - and that was after Reagan changed how the numbers were counted to bring it down a couple of points (he started counting active military as “employed”; they just weren’t on the books before).
And a lot of people don’t remember Reagan’s aggressive “quantitative easing” in 1986 intentionally deflating our currency against the yen - followed immediately by a wave of Japanese purchases in the U.S., prompting a wave of sinophobia.
Meet—- 10% was the “official” unemployment rate, however the Prez made changes in the way this was calculated to bring the figure down to that, such as denying veterans nemployment because they had the option of re-upping, anyone unemployed over 3 months were hardcore unemployed and didn’t want to work. The community where I lived had almost 1/3 of the homes vacant, people went to other states to work for minimum wage, etc.
jack: you’re not reading the facts posted, are you?
And Reagan did NOT start the “greatest sustain[ed] growth in American History.” His tax cuts did precisely what Bush’s did: increase the deficit, give away money to the rich, and increase the gap between rich and poor. His economic policies restored the “boom-and-bust” economy we had pre-FDR, and sure enough, we had a bust not long thereafter.
Reagan stopped inflation with an incredibly tight money policy between 1981-1984, causing massive unemployment. The Republicans were willing to inflict some pretty stiff “medicine” to get it under control. Whether you liked it or not probably has to do with whether you lost your job because of it.
After that, Reagan went on a campaign to devalue the dollar, manipulating the currency along the lines of what China has been doing. Of course the Japanese used their suddenly valuable currency to buy up American assets, making us xenophobic - until that real estate bubble burst and plunged Japan into a 15-year recession (wow sounds like history repeating)
Then of course there was the massive deficit spending Reagan engineered, eclipsing anything except WWII - enough deficit spending to leave us with 20% of our national budget going to interest. Reagan’s “stimulus bill” dwarfs anything that the Obama administration tried, and Reagan got the benefit of doing it before we already had an ocean of red ink.
The stimulative effect of more than quadrupling the national debt I think is a much better explanation of any economic recovery under Reagan that “supply side economics” (which George HW Bush referred to quite accurately as “voodoo economics”)
When Republicans are in power, Dick Cheney says “Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”, but when a Democrat gets elected, all of a sudden it’s his fault that there’s a debt.
Both Republicans and Democrats are more than capable of bonehead moves, but the Republicans are in their own league for hypocrisy, hysteria, and hate-mongering
Thomas R. Williams over 13 years ago
Speaking of political cover:
‘Before the 2006 midterm elections in which Republicans ultimately took a clobbering, Sen. Mitch McConnell asked President Bush in a private Oval Office meeting to pull some troops out of Iraq in order to boost the GOP’s chances, Bush reports in his new memoir.
And in the same month – September 2006 – that McConnell made his private request, he publicly blasted Democrats for calling for a reduction of troops in Iraq, saying that their position endangered Americans.
“The Democrat leadership finally agrees on something – unfortunately it’s retreat,” McConnell said in a Sept. 5, 2006, statement in response to a Democratic letter asking Bush to change his Iraq policy. Using blistering language, McConnell continued:
“Whether they call it ‘redeployment’ or ‘phased withdrawal,’ the effect is the same: We would leave Americans more vulnerable and Iraqis at the mercy of al-Qaeda, a terrorist group whose aim – toward Iraqis and Americans – is clear.”’
Straight from the Horse’s bleeep, ghostwritten of course.
Non-Sequiter riffs off FamC today as well.
rockngolfer over 13 years ago
Bush 43= worst prez ever in my lifetime, Bush 41, thanx for the 9% home loan I had to refinaance when Clinton took over.
Loco80 over 13 years ago
Rocky, you should have been alive in the late 70’s. THEN things were bad.
beenthere41 over 13 years ago
^A lot of people don’t realize we once lived with 14% interest rates. Doesn’t matter who was President, “stability” was only a word in the dictionary.
meetinthemiddle over 13 years ago
And a lot of people don’t remember that the unemployment rate was over 10% in 1983, over 2 years into Reagan’s 1st term - and that was after Reagan changed how the numbers were counted to bring it down a couple of points (he started counting active military as “employed”; they just weren’t on the books before).
And a lot of people don’t remember Reagan’s aggressive “quantitative easing” in 1986 intentionally deflating our currency against the yen - followed immediately by a wave of Japanese purchases in the U.S., prompting a wave of sinophobia.
Justice22 over 13 years ago
Meet—- 10% was the “official” unemployment rate, however the Prez made changes in the way this was calculated to bring the figure down to that, such as denying veterans nemployment because they had the option of re-upping, anyone unemployed over 3 months were hardcore unemployed and didn’t want to work. The community where I lived had almost 1/3 of the homes vacant, people went to other states to work for minimum wage, etc.
How soon we forget.
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
jack: you’re not reading the facts posted, are you? And Reagan did NOT start the “greatest sustain[ed] growth in American History.” His tax cuts did precisely what Bush’s did: increase the deficit, give away money to the rich, and increase the gap between rich and poor. His economic policies restored the “boom-and-bust” economy we had pre-FDR, and sure enough, we had a bust not long thereafter.
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
True, Clark. I’m well-off, but I’m not anywhere near that category.
WarBush over 13 years ago
Hey Jack you are aware that Reagan lowered the top tax rate for the rich and raised your taxes, right?
Motivemagus over 13 years ago
I read the facts, jack, not people’s false assertions about facts.
meetinthemiddle over 13 years ago
Reagan stopped inflation with an incredibly tight money policy between 1981-1984, causing massive unemployment. The Republicans were willing to inflict some pretty stiff “medicine” to get it under control. Whether you liked it or not probably has to do with whether you lost your job because of it.
After that, Reagan went on a campaign to devalue the dollar, manipulating the currency along the lines of what China has been doing. Of course the Japanese used their suddenly valuable currency to buy up American assets, making us xenophobic - until that real estate bubble burst and plunged Japan into a 15-year recession (wow sounds like history repeating)
Then of course there was the massive deficit spending Reagan engineered, eclipsing anything except WWII - enough deficit spending to leave us with 20% of our national budget going to interest. Reagan’s “stimulus bill” dwarfs anything that the Obama administration tried, and Reagan got the benefit of doing it before we already had an ocean of red ink.
The stimulative effect of more than quadrupling the national debt I think is a much better explanation of any economic recovery under Reagan that “supply side economics” (which George HW Bush referred to quite accurately as “voodoo economics”)
When Republicans are in power, Dick Cheney says “Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”, but when a Democrat gets elected, all of a sudden it’s his fault that there’s a debt.
Both Republicans and Democrats are more than capable of bonehead moves, but the Republicans are in their own league for hypocrisy, hysteria, and hate-mongering