It was a scam by Enron and Merrill Lynch; you can read details of it anywhere. (Stenographer Massimo Calabresi of Time is probably copying down notes from Clinton for a story proving that this was Bush’s fault.) But guess what scam isn’t being reported? Everybody is outraged and wants to throw those responsible in jail, right? Well, this is chump change and peanuts compared to what Clinton and Al Gore did, it has been learned today. Robert Novak reports that, during Bill Clinton’s last two years as CEO of the nation, “the announced level of before-tax profits was at least 10% too high – a discrepancy rising close to 30% during the last presidential campaign. Most startling, the Commerce Department in 2000 showed the economy on an upswing through most of the election year, while in fact, it was declining.”
Clinton and Gore lied about how strong the country was! The whole “boom in the ’90s” was built on fraud and deceit. The nation was into a recession that didn’t get reported until 2000 – after Bush had been inaugurated. This is a breath-taking piece. Where’s the outrage, folks? Where’s the press peppering Gore and Clinton with questions? People were hurt by this. This affected everybody, and we are living the results of it in part right now. The economy was in far worse shape during the presidential campaign, but they lied through their teeth about it.
This is fact, not opinion. The Commerce Department has sent out the full figures. Clinton is out there saying stuff like, Bush and them boys have destroyed everything we built up. We built the best economy in the last 150 years! If Gore had been elected, his whole four-year term would have been a lie. The doofus is still bragging about the Clinton/Gore economy! They overstated profits by 30% – but is it on the front page of any American newspaper? Nope. The papers have stories on the explosions in Colombia and a study finding children’s aid goes to adults and a dozen other relatively unimportant stories, but nothing on this scandal that affected every single American!