Deficit delusions - Pres Clinton's economic performance

National Review, Sept 2, 1996 by Stephen Moore

IF Woody Allen was right that 90 per cent of life is just showing up, then Bill Clinton has a stellar fiscal record. The federal budget deficit has tumbled from $255 billion in 1993 to a projected $117 billion this year. And Clinton was there when it happened. But that just about covers the extent of his involvement. For evidence of this, let's review the Clinton record over the past three and a half years:

-- In February 1993 President Clinton announces his new Administration's first economic program: a $16-billion "fiscal stimulus." The spending package is later abandoned by the Democratic Congress as too fiscally irresponsible.

-- In February 1993 President Clinton wins passage of his $250-billion tax hike -- which New York Sen. Pat Moynihan accurately describes as "the largest tax increase in world history." It passes both houses of Congress without a single Republican vote. The package contains approximately $2 of new spending for every $1 of new taxes.

-- In September 1993 the Clinton White House lobbies to defeat the bi-partisan Penny - Kasich deficit-reduction bill, which would have cut federal spending and the deficit by $90 billion over five years.

-- In January 1994 Bill and Hillary Clinton unveil "ClintonCare." The proposed hostile federal takeover of one-seventh of the U.S. economy would add at least $75 billion to the deficit over the next six years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

-- In September 1994 the President furiously lobbies liberal Democrats in Congress to oppose a Balanced Budget Amendment -- a measure supported by 75 per cent of the American public. Labor Secretary Robert Reich is a little too honest when he confirms most Americans' suspicions about this Administration: "The President is against simply balancing the budget."

-- In October 1994 the President signs into law his $30-billion "crime bill." The Los Angeles Times describes the legislation as a "once-in-a-lifetime federal spending bonanza" containing "a vast array of new social programs" including federally funded exotic-dance classes, sensitivity-training courses, and midnight-basketball leagues. The cost of the Clinton bill has to be shaved after the Democratic House of Representatives rejects the original version as too expensive.

-- In January 1995 Bill Clinton submits a 1996 budget plan that calls for $12 trillion of spending over the next seven years and $200-billion deficits for as far as the eye can see. Even Washington Post reporter David Broder blasts the document as a "symbol of Clinton's failed leadership." Because of the debt Clinton is adding, writes Broder, "the annual net interest is projected to climb from $198 billion in 1993 to $270 billion in 1997 -- when it will, for the first time, be larger than the projected defense budget."

-- In March 1995 Clinton again helps torpedo the Balanced Budget Amendment -- this time by strong-arming five Democratic senators, who had campaigned as champions of the amendment -- to flip-flop and vote no.

-- In June 1995, under pressure from the GOP Congress, Bill Clinton submits a new, revised budget proposal. It still doesn't balance the budget by 2002.

-- In July 1995 the Clinton White House begins its successful "Medi-scare" strategy to undermine public support for a GOP plan to rein in stampeding Medicare costs. Even the Washington Post editorializes that the Clinton Administration has become a gang of "medagogues." On Medicare and Medicaid, the White House is "engaged in an irresponsible campaign based on distortion and fear."

-- In October 1995 Bill Clinton confirms what most of the public is already painfully aware of: "I raised your taxes too much."

-- In December 1995 Bill Clinton vetoes the historic balanced-budget legislation enacted by the Republican Congress --listing 82 reasons why it cuts too much spending. He complains of cuts in everything from foreign aid to corporate welfare.

-- Later that month Bill Clinton releases his unprecedented third and then fourth budget proposals of the year. But they still don't balance the budget.

-- In February 1996 Bill Clinton releases a $1.65-trillion 1997 budget that calls for $360 billion in added spending, or $3,100 per American household, over the next seven years. Then with a straight face he tells the nation that "the era of big government is over." Oh, and the proposal still doesn't balance the budget by 2002.

-- In April 1996 Clinton signs the GOP budget after the Republicans capitulate to his demands and add back some $10 billion of deficit spending.

WHEW! This really is a pillar of fiscal integrity we have in the White House. The point of this demoralizing three-and-a-half-year budget odyssey is this: The Clinton Administration cannot credibly claim credit for the reduction in the deficit unless the nation is suffering from a severe case of fiscal amnesia.

On at least three separate occasions in 1993 and 1994 -- the fiscal-stimulus package, ClintonCare, and the crime bill -- the Administration attempted to make the deficit situation worse, but amazingly was constrained by a Democratic Congress. On four other instances, bipartisan deficit-reduction initiatives were rebuked by Clinton.