Bubba's back !!

What to expect in another Clinton White House

Bucks County Courier Times

May 22, 2016

What to make of Hillary Clinton’s announcement that, if elected president, she will put President Bill, “Bubba” Clinton in charge of the economy, because he did so well with it when he was president?

First, the claim that Bill Clinton led the U.S. into the “good old days” of the U.S. economy in the 1990s is largely bogus.

Writing in AlterNet, Conor Lynch points out, “The economy was inevitably going to boom [during the Bill Clinton presidency] with new technologies and the fall of global communism—which had opened up new markets around the world… Financial innovations also played a major role in the decade’s economic boom, though they would eventually lead to the 2007-08 financial crisis.”

The revenues of the earlier Bush tax hikes and budgets, the effects of which kicked in for Clinton, had as much to do with balanced budgets and lower deficits as anything President Bill did. As the Financial Times noted, “The record shows that the 1990 budget deal was extremely effective in reducing deficits; the budget surpluses of the late 1990s owe much to the policies put in place by George H.W. Bush.

Lynch concludes, “[Clinton] was lucky to be president during this period, just as Obama was unlucky to inherit the worst economic crisis in 80 years.”

What Hillary does not want to discuss is that President Bill set up the horrendous crash of 2007 and the Great Recession, and grew the vast gap of income and wealth between the already wealthy few and everybody else.

Bill Clinton signed the Riegle-Neal legislation which removed restrictions on interstate banking, leading to creation of the mega banks; then pushed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which made the mega banks into the Too-Big-To-Fail banks – that failed.

Team Clinton and his Wall Street benefactors then pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which created the derivatives market that was at the heart of the crash.

High fives on Wall Street. Literally. Sandy Weill, CEO at the serially criminal Citi Group crowed to his cronies, “We just made the President of the United States an insider.”

Finally, Clinton pushed NAFTA and began the evisceration of American manufacturing and massive job loss.

Only banksters and 1 percenters have any reason to be nostalgic about the good old Clinton days.

Second, there is the irony of Hillary (“I am woman, hear me roar”) Clinton looking to the man of the (White) house to take over what will arguably be her biggest job. Maybe she figures that will free her up to focus on foreign policy, and find another country to reduce to ruin and chaos.

But it certainly answers the question, what is the most important quality of a Hillary Clinton vice president: the ability to play second fiddle to Bill Clinton, who will be back in the White House as the clear de facto number two.

And maybe a great deal more, and that’s dangerous.

The danger is, everybody and their brother – allies and enemies foreign and domestic, the vast bureaucracies, staff, politicians and mega donors – will play Bill to get to Hillary. And he will be delighted to play.

Never mind the somewhat unseemly physical changes to the White House – a cash register by the front door and one by the Lincoln Bedroom – there is a real danger of a two headed presidency and competing centers of power in the Executive Branch.

Imagine the dreaded 3 AM phone call.

“It’s the Secretary of Defense. Wake President Clinton.”

“Which one?”

This is why, when in 1980 it was suggested Ronald Reagan take former President Ford as his running mate, he wisely declined.

With the co-dependent First Schemers back in the White House, everybody will be working on private servers, to keep their dirty deals out of sight. The intrigue will rival ancient Rome of the debauched Caesars and the amoral Florence of Machiavelli and the Medici’s.

Bubba’s back !!