Luke 3:17?He will separate chaff from grain, and burn up the chaff with eternal fire and store away the grain.
Bill and Hillary Clinton declared their net worth to be a little south of one million dollars (697k) when Bill was sworn in as President. This, even with Hillary’s remarkable eye for investing in the futures market, made them decidedly upper middle class. Today, Bill Clinton alone has earned $106 million just from “speaking fees.” Any suggestion that these are just delayed bribe payments are surely the readers’ and, with a nod to my favorite politician Francis Urquhart,?while you may think that, I couldn’t possibly comment.
Progressives, especially the earnest type found on MSNBC prime time, seem to constantly remind us that “the Republicans” crashed the economy. Even President Obama agreed:
CNN, no bastion of liberal thought, or thought for that matter, even released a poll recently that showed 44 percent of Americans still blame Bush and the Republicans while only a third blamed the Democrats and Obama for the economy. This is down considerably from where it used to be and if the trend continues, it may spell trouble for Democratic messaging for the the 2014 and 2016 election cycles.
Those of us who read, watch the news, and follow politics are reminded on a pretty regular basis of Bush’s crimes against our economy:
- Two wars put on the credit card
- Tax cuts during a time of war
- Expansion of drug benefits for Medicare but no ability to negotiate prices or way to pay for it
- No bid contracts for Cheney, I mean Halliburton (headquarters in Dubai)
- Stockpiling Tamiflu, Donald Rumsfeld’s company, at full price
- The crash of the housing market
- The crash of the stock market
- The crash of the banks
I’m sure the list could be longer. However, while all those things are terrible, all those things should have been investigated and wrongs righted, etc. We have to remember that President Bush the second didn’t walk into the White House in a vacuum. There were Presidents before him who helped shape banking policy, monetary policy, trade policy, and social policy. Surely those “other” Presidents must have had some influence?
Of the Presidents who came before “W,” ?and made his reign of error and disaster possible, none made the economic crash we are suffering, the income inequality levels we are enduring, the disastrous trade policies being inflicted upon us, more so than “Slick Willie” himself, the “Big Dog,” the “Explainer In Thief,” I mean, “Chief,” William Jefferson Clinton.
If Democrats wish to take the House and hold or increase their Senate majority, it is time for hard truths. If Hillary Clinton wishes to win the White House for the Democratic Party in 2016, it is time for a reckoning. A return to Democratic principles, values, and economic policies that served us so well as a nation before Bill threw them all away while he was chasing interns and lining up future consulting/speaking gigs. It is immoral, unethical, and should be illegal that the President of the United States after leaving office can get paid millions of dollars by the very companies, multinational empires; he is ostensibly in charge of regulating and controlling for the benefit of the majority of our citizens.
Here is Clinton’s list, compare it to Bush’s:
- Signed NAFTA, if you don’t think this was a mistake you are on the wrong site. December 8th, 1993.
- Repealed Glass Steagall. This made millions for Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, and made the banking collapse that occurred under Bush possible. November 12, 1999.
- Ended “welfare as we know it” and was proud of it. August 22, 1996.
- Claimed a surplus by raiding the Social Security trust funds.
- The “high dollar” policy that makes American exports less competitive
- China admitted into the WTO with no conditions to protect American workers. October 10, 1999.
Now of the two lists of “crimes” which did the most harm? The stupidity of Bush or the hundred million paid in “speaking fees” to the one who really cut the throat of the working poor and middle class in America?
Progressives must decide what we stand for and must vote for what we stand for. The current economic policies of the Democratic policy do not reflect a progressive, or even a “pro-American” platform. The day of harvest is drawing upon us. Will we demand wheat or settle for chaff?
Edited/Published by: WG
