Rubio's Great 100 years

On August 29, 2012 Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio said to NBC’s Brian Williams–“This century can be an American century, there’s no reason why this next hundred years can’t be just as great for our country if not better than the last hundred years and I think that’s important”. I agree so let’s take a look. 

Democrats and Republicans were one party until 1828. Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson were both Republicans (1861-1869); they abolished slavery and showed a separation between the rich and poor by only pardoning the less wealthy Confederates. Republicans used to support the Constitution (Ulysses Grant gave black men the right to vote with the 15^thAmendment and signed the first Civil Rights Act in 1875). Republican President William Taft authorized income taxes with the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913. Republicans from Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower created most of the federal bureaucracy in order to watch businesses. Today’s Republicans are NOT those of yesteryear. They want to pardon the rich, take away peoples’ civil rights, and remove the regulations and taxes put in place by their predecessors.  

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) cut taxes on the rich and raised the debt ceiling 17 times - the national debt went from $848 billion to $2.7 trillion - up 218%. George HW Bush (1989 – 1993) raised the debt ceiling 4 times, from $2.7 trillion to $4.188 trillion - up 55%. George W. Bush (2001-08) removed Bill Clinton’s tax increases on the rich and gave them tax breaks; raised the debt ceiling 7 or 8 times and left the national debt at $10.627 trillion - up 86%. These 3 Republican presidents increased our national debt by 359% or 18% per year. FYI - President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) raised the debt ceiling 4 times and national debt went from $4.188 trillion to $5.728 trillion - up 37% or 4.6% per year. I’ll talk about Obama’s situation separately as he inherited a recession and has been stopped by Republicans from implementing a tax increase on the rich.