The Real Gingrich Record [part 2] (by ContraSuggest)

Who was responsible for the “Clinton Boom?”

The broad and fundamental tax and regulatory changes that were put in place by the Reagan Administration during the 1980s were responsible for a marathon economic boom which extended well into the 1990s.  Newt Gingrich, a young up-and-coming conservative congressman from Georgia, fought hard from the floor of the House to support the Reagan agenda. What proved insurmountable for Reagan and his supporters was reigning in congressional spending which created increased government deficits.  Not withstanding, the economic recovery and sustained growth that resulted from his policies were only briefly delayed in early 1990 by Federal Reserve interest rate increases, an oil price increase as the result of the first Gulf War, a credit crunch brought on by the S&L debacle, and the first President Bush breaking his “no new taxes” pledge.  In an effort to reduce the national deficit, Bush did a deal with congressional Democrats and agreed to a tax increase.  Congressman Newt Gingrich advised Bush not to break the pledge and instead fight the Democrats for more spending cuts.  Then-White House Chief of Staff John Sununu advised Bush to go ahead with the tax increase, which he did; several weeks ago Sununu announced his 2012 presidential endorsement of moderate Mittsy Romney over Newt Gingrich.  Some people never learn. 

President Bush paid for that blunder, as it proved to be one of the reasons why he was defeated in the 1992 presidential election by Bill Clinton.  On the campaign trail and during his first two years in office, Clinton’s economic policies were the antitheses of Reagan’s.  For example, although he increased taxes where Reagan had cut them, Clinton’s increases still left rates lower than they were before the Reagan cuts.  Any deficit reduction attributable to Clinton came in the form of ill-advised defense budget cuts.  Fortunately, his anti-growth economic policies weren’t enough to derail the economic juggernaut started in the 1980s, so the 90s continued to boom.         

After the Republican’s congressional takeover in 1994, Clinton abandoned the dead-end liberal policies he gleefully promoted during his first two years in office.  He signed seven out of ten of the Contract with America's core planks into law, including Welfare Reform, all of which were consistent with the principles of Ronald Reagan.  With the exception of his unflagging support for free trade in the form of championing NAFTA, and playing along with congressional Republicans, Clinton had no original policy initiatives that contributed to the economic growth of the 1990s.  The Contract with America was consistent with the transformative policies of low taxes and low regulations that Ronald Reagan instituted in the 1980s; Clinton’s own policies were the converse of both.  President Clinton suffered two major defeats during his two-term presidency, one of which was impeachment as the result of his tangled web of lies (including lying under oath in court) surrounding the Monika Lewinsky affair.  The other was the political defeat of losing the House of Representatives to Republicans in 1994, a takeover that would not have been conceived and executed without Newt Gingrich.