NN: From budget tables at http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2001/sheets/hist08z4.xls
. . . In the budget, means-tested entitlements increased in Clinton's first few years in office, but levelled off to a holding pattern at 2.3% of GDP in both 1992 and 1993.
mbs: What happened is that after 1992, they went up by two-tenths of a percent of GDP, then went down by one-tenth of a percent by FY2000. The preceding language does not quite capture the flavor of these baby steps.
NN: . . . Now, welfare deform did all sorts of bad things to the structure of aid, but the total dollars were preserved in such means-tested programs. Don't kid yourself that there is plenty of damage the GOP could do in cutting them down to the levels they hit in the mid-80s.
True much damage remains to be done. I don't think it will be in this dimension, but I could be wrong. Worries are not unjustified.
More important, the Clintonoids basically squandered, for their own narrow political benefit, an historic opportunity to improve domestic policy with the benefit of new budget resources. To me this is their greatest crime. Welfare reform is just a piece of that.
Their continued influence in the party, as reflected in the likely DNC chairman and the Hillary accession, is another good reason to look elsewhere. Rightward ho indeed.
mbs