Back to Work - Bill Clinton [4]
S&P stated clearly that what really upset it was the politics of Washington, the slow recovery from the recession, and the fact that over the next few years debt in several wealthy countries is projected to go down as a percentage of GDP but the U.S. debt probably will not do so, mostly because the United States, alone among wealthy nations, has had no effective restraint on health-care costs. Above all, S&P thinks America’s politics have become dysfunctional. Their assessment sounds like Mark Twain’s comparison of lawmaking to sausage-making—on steroids, and without the humor.
I HAVE STARTED AND STOPPED this project several times over the last few months because politics is no longer the center of my working life and I don’t want just to add another stone to the Democratic side of the partisan scale.
I decided to go forward because I think it’s important that all Americans have a clear understanding of the basic economic facts and of the ideas driving the policy proposals under discussion. For example, even though I strongly favor a multiyear plan to bring our budget back into balance, if we cut spending or raise taxes a lot when the economy is still weak, it will slow down economic recovery. Unlike the situation in 1993, when my deficit reduction plan sparked a substantial drop in interest rates and a big increase in private investment, interest rates today are already near zero. So in the short run, a big cut in spending could even increase the annual deficit, because tax revenues might decrease even more than government spending is cut. The problem today is weak demand for new goods, services, and labor, reinforced by the huge drag of the unresolved home mortgage crisis.
I believe the challenges we face, which are tough enough on their own, are made even more difficult by the highly polarized, deeply ideological political climate in Washington. It is an almost alien environment to me now, because what I do today—in my foundation, in the Clinton Global Initiative, and in Haiti—is a world away from Washington’s political wars. We receive support from Democrats, Republicans, independents, and concerned citizens the world over. Instead of focusing on our differences, we come together to build a world of shared opportunities and shared responsibilities. Instead of making speeches, we focus on taking action on our common challenges, and on keeping score, so that we learn what works and what doesn’t. Whenever possible, we collaborate with both government and the private sector to do things better, faster, and at lower costs.
It seems to be working: helping more than four million people with AIDS in developing countries get lifesaving medicine; increasing farmers’ incomes in Latin America and Africa; developing pro-growth approaches to fighting climate change around the world; fighting childhood obesity in the United States by reducing calories in drinks consumed by kids in schools by 88 percent; offering America’s first master’s degree in public service, as opposed to public policy, at the University of Arkansas’s Clinton School of Public Service; and building global networks of givers whose commitments at the Clinton Global Initiative have already helped more than 300 million people in 170 countries.
I’ve been honored to work with both President George H. W. Bush on rebuilding efforts after the tsunami in south Asia and Hurricane Katrina and with President George W. Bush in Haiti to rebuild and diversify the economy