History indicates that a Romney presidency would be very difficult for the country. [View all]

[kentuck]

Last edited Sun Jun 17, 2012, 08:59 AM - Edit history (2)

Going back at least to LBJ, Republicans have inherited better economies than they have left for their successors. Nixon had a "secret strategy" to stop the war in Vietnam in 1968 when he was running for President. However, when he was forced from office in 1974, the war was still going on and the country was sliding into our first post-WWII inflationary period. It hit hardest when Gerald Ford was in office in 1975 and 1976, when he created the WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons as a way to battle the high prices. At the same time, we had the first oil shock, with long lines at the gas stations for the first time. That was what Jimmy Carter inherited in January, 1977, on top of the trust lost in the Watergate scandal.

Jimmy Carter made a valiant effort to bring down the price of oil by cutting back on foreign consumption. He was ridiculed for suggesting people turn their thermostats back by 3-4 degrees and he even put solar panels on the roof of the White House. However, when Ronald Reagan took over in January, 1981, Jimmy Carter had put the country on a more stable path of energy independence. Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels and the American people sank back into complacency.

By the time Reagan and Bush I had finished their 12 years, the economy was surviving mostly on Keynesian spending and tax cuts for the wealthy. Unfortunately, they created record deficits that had the American people, including Ross Perot, very concerned about the direction our country was headed. Once again, a Democrat, Bill Clinton inherited their mess.

After 8 years of the Clinton Presidency, in which he was impeached, the economy was at full employment and for the first time since LBJ, the country had another balanced budget. Once again, the Democrat, with a shovel and a broom, had cleaned up the Republican economic mess. He left a balanced budget and a projected surplus with the entire debt paid off by 2011, to George W Bush.

Rarely in our history, if ever, has there been a presidency as disastrous as that of George W Bush. He demolished the balanced budget and the surplus after his first year in office, by passing humongous taxcuts for the wealthiest people in the country. On top of that, after the WTC was attacked, he borrowed the money to fight two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. The wars dragged on for his entire two terms. On top of all that, he presided over the worst collapse in our economy since the Great Depression. The danger to the economy and to our system itself may have been even greater than the Great Depression.

Enter the next Democrat, Barack Obama. The economy collapsing, the stock market dropping like a rock, the mortgage bubble popping everywhere, job losses at more than a million every two months. 401K retirement incomes disappearing. That is the mess that Barack Obama inherited.

Now, as we enter into the last few months of the first term of the Obama Presidency, the economy has not fully recovered. It is still in a very fragile condition. It was in such severe condition that the Democrat could not fix it in four years. The wrong decisions could send us back into a tail spin at any time.

Unlike his Republican predecessors, Mitt Romney would not have an economy that has been fixed by the Democrat. There is no room for Republican mistakes this time around. If we attempt the same Republican policies once again, there is little Democratic cushion to save us from the impact that it will have on all of America. History indicates, in my opinion, that a Romney presidency will be devastating for the poor and average working folks.

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