QandO

February 21, 2004

Bill Clinton is soooo yesterday...
Posted by Jon Henke

Pejman makes a good point....

I do so enjoy reading left-of-center commenters who regularly decry any critiques of people on their side, while vigorously attacking right-of-center figures, even when those latter figures are former politicians, long out of office.

The latest example of this is Matthew Yglesias's complaint that Republicans are still criticizing the poor and saintly William Jefferson Clinton--even though he has been out of office for the past three years. Never mind the fact that having served as President, Clinton will naturally be discussed, praised and reviled by commentators of all stripes for decades to come, as the American public works to determine his legacy (damn us for our incessant historical curiosity!).

But let's look at what Yglesias wrote...

Brad DeLong finds two examples of administration officials asserting that the last recession began in the last quarter of 2000 (i.e., when Bill Clinton was president), contradicting not only the National Bureau of Economic Research's findings but the White House's own Economic Report of the President.

At a certain point, though, you have to wonder why they're even bothering. Clinton left office three years ago -- there's been plenty of time since then for Bush to correct any problems he may have inherited.

1: The National Bureau of Economic Research is currently re-examining the start date of the recession, and considering pushing it back to 2000. That hasn't been done yet, but let's not pretend like the Bush administration is somehow "way off base" in claiming the recession began then.

2: Did we repeal cause and effect, and nobody told me? Did the events during the Clinton administration just suddenly stop having any effect on January 20th, 2001? I didn't realize each new President got a mulligan on the whole thing.

More to the point, Matt writes "there's been plenty of time since then for Bush to correct any problems he may have inherited". That's just nonsense. Policies have nearly indefinitely long effects. We're still experiencing the effects of FDR's New Deal, LBJ's Great Society, Reagans Cold War and tax cut policies and Clintons NAFTA, and assorted other policies. When you change the structure of the economy, the effects will ALWAYS be present.

Moreover, some of those inherited economic problems did not even come to light until well after Bush took office. The corporate scandals, for example. Perhaps Matt thinks Bush can just institute "the right policies" and everything would begin going swimmingly, but that's a needlessly obstructive oversimplification of the economy.

3: Oh, Matt...do please tell us all about not bringing up previous Presidents and the problems they left.

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