Late in Clinton’s tenure, the White House put forth a document celebrating
“Historic Economic Growth” during the administration and pointing to the policy
accomplishments it deemed responsible for this growth. Among the achievements on
Clinton’s list were “Modernizing for the New Economy through Technology and
Consensus Deregulation.” That’s right, a Clinton White House document credited
part of the administration’s success to that now dreaded d-word,
deregulation.
Everything in those passages is true. All that’s missing is credit to the GOP-controlled Congress elected in 1994 for passing most of the policies that led to the prosperity. But the Clinton administration, whatever its personal and policy flaws, should indeed be praised for signing and advocating this deregulation. These bipartisan financial policies, however, were the very same policies that Obama, running mate Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and other Democrats attacked during the campaign.