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Gridlock Isn’t So Great
By Jeff Carter 

I remember in the halcyon days of the Bill Clinton Presidency, many told me, “gridlock is good”. Republican controlled houses of Congress with a Democrat President. “Nothing can get done.”, they said. “It’s better for working families.” 

Well, some things did get done and as we look at certain segments of the Clinton foreign policy, there were seeds for quite a bit of damage later on. But, with regard to economics and fiscal policy, Clinton was much more interested in being popular and preserving power than he was a hard core leftist. He let the Republicans lead the way on the economy. 

From 2008-2010 my friends were in my face, “See”, they said, “I told you so.”. The Democratically monopoly of Congress combined with a hard left Democratic President totally screwed up the American economy. “Gridlock is good”, they said.  Stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and the aggressive form of government they practiced wreaked havoc on years of established practices. 

Result; businesses and consumers froze. When businesses could, they pivoted and allocated resources to places that were growing. Like Asia, India and Brazil. 

Instead of using the time honored practice of bankruptcy and eventual credit work out for recalcitrant banks, we chose to save them. Now we have heavily damaged banks that are like a bad penny. They keep coming back. 

There are events that policy makers in the US cannot control, like those in Europe. However, pursuing correct fiscal policy would at least give “working families” a chance to insulate themselves. The path the Democrats have chosen is no different than charging uphill into a machine gun nest. Americans are dying on that hill. 

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