Reply #22: Aburd. Clinton didn't want a small gov't for the same reason Repubs wanted [View All]

[AP]

small gov't. Repubs wanted it to make sure the gov't couldn't do anything to level the playing field (to interfere with the corporatocracy).

Clinton felt he could take the argument for small gov't out of the Republican arsenal of anti-Democratic weapons if he reduced the size of the gov't by reducing waste, while protecting the ability of the gov't to protect individuals from the corporotocracy.

He wanted to do just as much (if not more) with less. Which made him much different from Republicans.

If you think Clinton wanted to be like Reagan, you just need to look at how dramatically America has changed under Bush. If Clinton was so much like Reagan, America wouldn't have changed so dramatically in four years. Duh.

As for welfare -- Clinton was hard on welfare, but he was harder on the causes of welfare. He put people to work and raised salaries as % of GDP. He increased wealth for people who didn't have much.

Tax cuts? He made them more progressive in his first adminstration. The worst damage to the tax code in his eight years were done in the last four, and Clinton tried to stop them. But the tax code is where Republicans fight their hardest. Clinton also had some assholes in his Treasury Department, and had an asshole for a Vice President, who always sided with big busines.

OK. Clinton COULD have done better. But he did pretty well. And, as I said, I think the dramatic changes in the last four years prove he wasn't Republicans lite.