Bill Clinton vs. George W. Bush

Overview

Defenders of George W. Bush sometimes argue that Bill Clinton set a new (lower) standard for presidential behavior. While this is at best a "he did it first" argument, and more likely just changing the subject, it is worth setting the record straight on the matter in order to minimize the amount of time spent being sidetracked.

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Related Pages

• See the discussion page for substantial discussion on this topic.
• Balkans vs. Iraq: A comparison between one campaign under Clinton and one under Bush

Specific Points

	Bill Clinton	George W. Bush
	doubled the Border Patrol early in his first term	severely cut Border Patrol funds1
Subject of lying	his personal life	significant matters of state
Severity of lying	charged with perjury2 (lying under oath)	aforesaid lies were merely official statements and not under oath
	charged with obstruction of justice2	informally accused of attempted destruction of Democracy
Economy	"It's The Economy, Stupid"
Average annual GDP growth	3.6%	2.6%
Non-farm employment	added 22.7 million jobs	added 3 million jobs (worst record of any US president in 70 years)
Unemployment	7.3% -> 4.2%	4.2% -> 4.7%
Real median household income	grew by $5,825	fell by $1,273
poverty rate	fell 3.5% (6.4 million fewer people)	rose 1.3% (5.4 million more people)
S&P 500	+ 308% (435.49 -> 1342.54)	- 2.1% (1342.54 -> 1314.78 as of 9/22/06)
NASDAQ	+ 395% (700.77 -> 2770.38)	- 20% (2770.38 -> 2218.93 as of 9/22/06).
Federal Spending as % of GDP	22.1% (fiscal 1992) to 18.4% in 2000	back up to 20.8% (fiscal 2006)
total executive branch employment does not include classified numbers for CIA, DIA, NSA, & other intelligence agencies; does not include outsourced jobs	down by almost 450,000 (2.225 million -> 1.778 million)	up by almost 100,000 (to 1.872 million).
Federal Debt	deficit of $290 billion —> surplus of $236 billion (fiscal 2000)	increased by almost $3 trillion (as of 2006)
Public Debt as % of GDP	-16.4%	+4.4%

See also Balkans vs. Iraq

Note 1

"savagely cut funds [to the Border Patrol, and continued] cutting till the border tsunami began bothering even his most loyal redstate supporters"[1], leading to the 2006 immigration crisis

Note 2

These charges were made by Republican-led congress but acquitted by the Democrat-led Senate, a decision which many (especially but not exclusively Republicans) disagreed with vehemently.

Bumper Stickers

"No children died / when Clinton lied." – seen 2006-09-22

Quotes

"Republicans used to observe derisively that Clinton had a difficult relationship with the truth. Bush has a difficult relationship with the truth, too. It's just a different – and perhaps more grave – kind of difficulty." – William Saletan

Links

• 2006-09-26
  • Arguments for your obstinate uncle...: some more comparison points (by Russ Daggatt, with some Brin commentary)
  • Keith Olbermann comments on Bill Clinton's Fox News interview: '"At least I tried," he said of his own efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. "That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried."'