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Pining Away for Bubba

By Doug Bandow on 1.11.10 @ 6:48AM

My Cato Institute colleague David Boaz waxes nostalgic for Bill Clinton in the Washington Times. Hear him out--he's got a good point! Writes Boaz:

Suddenly, I find myself nostalgic for Bill Clinton. It comes as a shock. Back in 1996, I denounced his "breathtaking view of the ability and obligation of government to plan the economy" and his "profoundly anti-individualist ideas."

But now I have a hazy memory of the Clinton years as a sort of Golden Age. Government spending was growing only slowly, the bad ideas were mostly small, and we bombed a lot of countries but didn't put American troops at risk.

Of course, what I'm really nostalgic for is divided government. In his first two years, with a Democratic Congress, Mr. Clinton supported a health care takeover, an economic stimulus bill, an energy tax, an income-tax increase, a gasoline-tax increase, and even a retroactive tax increase on income earned before he was president. Though most of that never made it to his signing desk, it was still a bigger-government agenda than voters had expected from a guy who called himself "a new kind of Democrat."

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

S.L. Toddard| 1.11.10 @ 7:27AM

"I denounced his "breathtaking view of the ability and obligation of government to plan the economy"

Such is the thinking of a liberal, right? Now consider the Fox News Right's "breathtaking view of the ability and obligation of government to plan" the ground-up formation of entire nations - and DEMOCRATIC nations at that, in the Middle East, amongst peoples with absolutely no history of or tendency toward democracy. Peoples who had no Enlightment. Societies that have no Christian basis for belief in equality before the law. Think - nay, MARVEL - at the level of faith one must have in Big Government to believe it is capable of such things. Silly, silly Big Government Republicans.

Ken (Old Texican)| 1.11.10 @ 8:23AM

Heeeeeerrrrrs Toddard...playing his one string violin for your listening pleasure.....again. Heh!

S.L. Toddard| 1.11.10 @ 9:10AM

And here's Ken, someone who despises the idea of "small government", preferring instead the sort of massive leviathan state and bureaucracy necessary to lead, rule over and police the entire globe.

When will radical left-wing statists like Ken ever learn?

Truth to Power| 1.11.10 @ 10:15AM

Screech, screech, screech. Learn how to play that damn thing.

sinanju| 1.11.10 @ 11:36AM

Don't you just love the way liberals are convinced that the Little Brown People are congenitally incapable of representative government, capitalism and the rule of law? That they are instinctually uncomfortable living without a tyrant with his boot upon their necks? And that it's racist, chauvinist, imperialist folly to suggest otherwise?

Jim Hlavac| 1.11.10 @ 11:55AM

"Of course, what I'm really nostalgic for is divided government. "
What is this beast 'divided' government'?
And what is it about the palace guards that always think the kings know best? Makes no difference in the past 40 years if its Republican or Democrat -- it's all "what can government do." Government has grown no matter which side of the divide is in power at any level of governance in the nation -- the laws, taxes, rules, regulations and mandates come in a never ceasing flow, like the Mississippi never stops, but merely is quicker and deeper, or slower and shallower, as the season warrants, as it wends its way to the sea of ever big government -- and like the sea, the halls of power are never full of enough power, but always there's a need for a little or a lot more.