Happy Birthday, Jimmy Carter
By Mike Hersh, Oct 1, 2002
Considered the finest ex-president by many, Jimmy Carter is perhaps the most underrated president as well.
He brokered peace in the Middle East, as most people know. But many don't realize he also increased defense spending every year. As a former naval officer, he reformed and revamped the military. The new dollars added to our security, not just the deficit, as Carter continued the tried and true containment policies which won the Cold War.
Facing economic woes when he took office in 1981, he took the painful steps needed to halt inflation without stopping job growth. Carter's policies helped create nearly two million new jobs per year.
Carter was left holding the bag when teetering regimes -- pawns in the Cold War superpower contest -- became liabilities. Some, like Iran, collapsed. Nixon's and Kissinger's arrogance and double-dealing provoked oil shocks and international instability which reverberated all through the Carter years. This -- not any failure of Carter's -- triggered the foreign and economic crises that marred his term.
The bizarre outlaw Khomeini regime humiliated Carter who -- unlike Reagan -- refused to treat with the Ayatollah. Evidence suggests the Reagan team began secret negotiations with the terrorist state even before taking office. According to this alleged deal, Iran kept our hostages so Reagan could defeat Carter.
Sources place both George HW Bush and Reagan campaign manager William Casey at meetings with agents for Iran in France and elsewhere before the election. Casey went on to become Reagan's CIA director. Certainly it's odd that our enemy Iran released our hostages the same day Reagan took the oath of office.
Carter stood up to Iran's threats and demands, and all our American hostages returned home safely. Although too late to help Carter keep his job. There is no question the Reagan administration illegally traded arms for hostages and lied about it, but somehow Reagan seemed stronger.
Carter inherited other liabilities. The high inflation and slow growth "stagflation" economy elevated the "misery index." Unlike the Republicans, Carter saw this as a long-term concern and focused federal efforts into a new Department of Energy.
This exemplified Carter's long-term vision. He also established a new Cabinet-level Department of Education, and reformed government to improve performance. Reagan reversed progress in these areas.
Carter's long view was better for us than him. The "Misery Index" -- unemployment plus inflation -- peaked just at the wrong time for Carter. This because he did what he thought was best for the US, not what was most politic for Jimmy Carter.
Reaganomics slammed a slow but growing economy into reverse, and then Reagan blamed everything on Jimmy Carter. Reagan also stole credit for Carter's anti-inflation policies.
Carter was no liberal, and in many ways his policies foreshadowed the DLC (Democratic Leadership Conference) positions on politics and economics. As a young activist, I rejected Carter in favor of third party candidate John Anderson in 1980. Nader Democrats, Please Come Home!
Carter -- often used as the example that Democrats can't run the economy -- actually proves Republican policies are at fault. Carter inherited "stagflation" and other crises from the Nixon and Ford administrations. Carter began an era of tax cutting for the wealthy and deregulation, although he employed moderation and restraint Reagan abandoned.
Carter pushed a capital gains tax cut through the Congress, deregulated energy, transportation, and other industries. These conservative policies failed almost as badly for Carter as they did for Reagan and Bush I and II. Almost. The growth rate fell by more than 2% after the capital gains tax rate fell from 39% to 28%, and then the economy fell into recession. Bushwhack Bush Tax is Bad for America
Carter's policies were anti-inflationary. His choice of Paul Volcker to run the Federal Reserve Board -- nothing Reagan did -- cured inflation. The Carter economic record -- for job creation and deficit control -- puts Reagan's to shame. This not even considering waste of the Reagan budgets and the S&L Crisis which squandered $billions of taxes.
We are still paying off the interest -- not even the principle -- on the borrow-and-spend Reaganomics debt. Reagan -- not Tip O'Neill or Ted Kennedy anyone else -- proposed, lobbied for and signed into law eight straight out of balance budgets which tripled the national debt.
Three dozen Presidents from George Washington to Jimmy Carter and all the Congresses all put together never managed to roll up even one trillion in national debt. Reagan left us burdened with THREE TRILLION in debt. Don't Worry About Iraq, It's The Economy Stupid
While the Carter inaugural cost well under $4 Million, Reagan's gala festivities cost $16.3 MILLION. This was more than double what Reagan's officials said, meaning they began lying from Day One.
Reagan's tax deductible orgy of excess cost about five times Carter's modest ceremonies, and -- according the to GAO (General Accounting Office) -- "much of the support provided by the Department of Defense for [Reagan's] 1981 inaugural activities was without proper legal authority." So Reagan began breaking the law and bilking tax payers from Day One -- if not before!
Carter protected the environment. Reagan was a wanton waster of our national treasures and resources.
Carter engaged the USSR and worked to foster peace to stabilize the planet. Reagan engaged in reckless provocation which nearly caused World War III.
Carter stood up to terrorist states. Reagan's representatives cut weapons deals with terrorist states like Iran and Iraq.
Carter brought home our hostages alive without capitulating or caving in to terrorist demands. Reagan sent our weapons to terrorists, even though they had killed a US CIA agent and other Americans.
Carter promoted human rights. Reagan fomented war and terrorism, sponsoring death squads throughout Latin America.
Carter achieved the Camp David breakthrough which stabilized the Middle East. Reagan's pointless policies directly caused the deaths of 240 US Marines in Beirut, which he covered up by invading a tiny, obscure island called Grenada.
Carter ran the cleanest White House in memory. Reagan ran the dirtiest, with more than 140 crooks in his administration.
Carter protected rights and increased opportunity for women and minorities. Reagan turned the federal government into a force for racism and bigotry fighting against and denied equal and civil rights.
Carter increased our investments in the future -- education, energy policy, science, medicine and more. Reagan slashed all non-military discretionary spending.
Carter was honest. He kept his promise by never lying to us. Reagan was a profligate liar. He either broke several laws and lied about it under oath, or else was so unaware of what his administration did no one could call him fit for office.
Still the media portrayed Carter as a weak failure, and canonized Reagan. I blame this illusion / double standard on the machine created after conservatives blamed Vietnam and Watergate on "the liberal media."
Jimmy Carter was its first victim. Honor in American politics was its second. We're still suffering from the extreme rightwing bias in the media -- today, more than ever.
Reagan accepted special favors from the rich and powerful, and did special favors for them using our money. Besides the $1200 coffee pots and $980 toilet seats, the Reagan years soaked most Americans with higher taxes despite our lower real personal incomes.
Reagan endlessly blathered about morality and family values, but showed no morality and barely valued his family. He seldom went to church, but made a big deal about it.
Carter leads by example, living modestly and decently. He stood up for the weak, and still does. Even as president, he went to church regularly and taught Sunday School, but he never bragged about it.
He might say of all his achievements, his four children -- sons John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and daughter Amy -- were the best.
So wish a happy 78th birthday to our 39th president James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, born on this date in 1924. An underrated president and a great American. For a present, let's stop Bush's mad rush to war in Iraq and vote in a solid Democratic Congress this November.
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