Clinton Inherited Economic Downturn From HW, Maddow Claims

Maybe Rachel Maddow watched one too many clips of Bill Clinton during the '92 campaign claiming George H.W. had "driven the economy into a ditch" and that things were as bad as they'd been since the Depression. In the course of trying to lower expectations for Obama to the max on her show tonight, and tracing the history of the economies previous presidents inherited, Maddow claimed that "Clinton took the oath during an economic downturn."

Uh, no. He took office in the midst of an economy that was growing at a fast pace. Don't take my word for it. "Fast pace" was the way economic growth was characterized at the time by the . . . New York Times.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• economic
• downturn
• clinton
• bush
• economy

[Corporations8MyBaby]

Nope. One of the reasons Ross Perot had so much sway in that election was because the nation was reeling from GHWB's massive deficit (highest in history up to that point in *real dollars) & his totally ignoring the middle class. Wages fell, prices rose, the midwest rusted as manufacturing jobs left never to return. Reagan had America stop making things. GHWB grew the government to epic proportions. Clinton inherited a crisis that included a scummy bailout of S&Ls. It was dismal.

[marcostar57]

.."economic downturn romber-room"..

[aweiss]

title misleading, didn't say from HW in the sense that he caused it.

[thereelghostbuster]

Ditto.

[thereelghostbuster]

So now the NYT is a credible source? Sounds like someone's been advancing a little too much freedom to happyland. Allow me to assauge your ignorance. Between 1990 and 1992, job mobility in the US deteriorated across the board. State taxes increased (a prime characteristic of significant economic shrinkage) until 1995.