But the punditry didn't really hit the fan until a congressman from (where-the-fk-else) Arizona named Matt Salmon waxed nostalgic for the last time Republican meatheads shut the government down.
I was here during the government shutdown in 1995. It was a divided government. we had a Democrat [sic] President of the United States. We had a Republican Congress. And I believe that that government shutdown actually gave us the impetus, as we went forward, to push toward some real serious compromise. I think it drove Bill Clinton in a different direction, a very bipartisan direction. In fact, we passed welfare reform for the first time ever, and we cut the welfare ranks in the last decade and a half by over 50%. These are good things. We also balanced the budget for the first time in 40 years in 1997, 1998, 1999. And when I left we had an over $230 billion surplus. This was with a Democrat [sic] president, A Republican -
(You think that's a good idea?)
Yes, I do. I really do. I think it's about time!
The folks at Think Progress did a good job fact-checking this vandal in real time. (And, if there's one trope I'd like to see demolished further this year, it's that welfare "reform" under Bill Clinton has proven to be some kind of unalloyed triumph. Its provisions have made the lives of poor people harder during the ongoing recession, and the fact that this administration had to issue so many waivers in so many places so that so many people wouldn't suffer needlessly left it open to the famously bullshit charge that the president was "gutting" this toweringly bipartisan masterpiece.) But it shouldn't be too much to expect Salmon to notice that it is no longer 1995, and that there's no tech boom or housing bubble on the immediate horizon, and that shutting down the government in the middle of a perilously weak recovery is like trying to increase the acceleration of your car by firing a flare into your gas tank.
Charlie Pierce
I was here during the government shutdown in 1995. It was a divided government. we had a Democrat [sic] President of the United States. We had a Republican Congress. And I believe that that government shutdown actually gave us the impetus, as we went forward, to push toward some real serious compromise. I think it drove Bill Clinton in a different direction, a very bipartisan direction. In fact, we passed welfare reform for the first time ever, and we cut the welfare ranks in the last decade and a half by over 50%. These are good things. We also balanced the budget for the first time in 40 years in 1997, 1998, 1999. And when I left we had an over $230 billion surplus. This was with a Democrat [sic] president, A Republican -
(You think that's a good idea?)
Yes, I do. I really do. I think it's about time!
The folks at Think Progress did a good job fact-checking this vandal in real time. (And, if there's one trope I'd like to see demolished further this year, it's that welfare "reform" under Bill Clinton has proven to be some kind of unalloyed triumph. Its provisions have made the lives of poor people harder during the ongoing recession, and the fact that this administration had to issue so many waivers in so many places so that so many people wouldn't suffer needlessly left it open to the famously bullshit charge that the president was "gutting" this toweringly bipartisan masterpiece.) But it shouldn't be too much to expect Salmon to notice that it is no longer 1995, and that there's no tech boom or housing bubble on the immediate horizon, and that shutting down the government in the middle of a perilously weak recovery is like trying to increase the acceleration of your car by firing a flare into your gas tank.
Charlie Pierce
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
"And, if there's one trope I'd like to see demolished further this year, it's that welfare 'reform' under Bill Clinton has proven to be some kind of unalloyed triumph."
Can I get an "Amen"?
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