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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Both Obama and Bush have used Keynesian strategies.
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Assuming agreement on the above, my point is that the hybrid solution is no solution. The hybrid solution is perhaps the reason this recession is as bad as it is - perhaps it is the cause. Either way I am not debating the reasons for the recession, I am illustrating the problem with the mythical center. The argument that both a liberal and a conservative both make the same mistake in my view means both are wrong - not that it is the center.
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Both Canada and the United States are quite familiar with them, just as they are familiar with monetary policies. Most advanced economies are mixed economies, and so you don't even need to be a centrist to use both strategies.
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This is usually when I use an analogy to try to illustrate what I see as the problem in the position above. Today, I will refrain and simply say what I have been saying. If there is a mix at best it is a half solution, at worst it is a disaster, and most likely the underlying economy has the power to over come incompetence.
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This is mostly true. Bill Clinton was mostly centre-left until he lost the House, after which he became centre-right. It's not uncommon to see liberal/progressive politicians shift around the centre. I wouldn't call Clinton a conservative, however. At best, he was able to bridge the gap between liberalism and conservatism through compromise and appropriation. He's not the only liberal/progressive to do that. Canadian politics is filled with it.
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Again, I am not clear if your meaning of center is like the sum of the pluses and minuses adding up to zero. If that is the definition, I agree there is a center - but I don't see how any conclusions can be drawn from such an approach.
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NAFTA was started by conservative Canadian and American leaders (Mulroney/Bush Sr.) and was finalized by liberal Canadian and American leaders (Chrétien/Clinton). There were renegotiations in between.
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To me NAFTA was an aggressive move towards true free market capitalism between North American Nations. I agree that the finer details where negotiated, but again I would argue where there was compromise there were on-going problems.
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The Liberal Party of Canada has been known to go on a platform that includes tax cuts as well. Obama has cut taxes.
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And some taxes have increased during his administration. Seems to me, his goal is not to cut taxes but to redistribute wealth and that he wants to use tax policy to accomplish that goal. I think Bush, for example, simply wanted to cut taxes to lessen the burden on the American people.
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Clinton balanced the budget and eliminated the deficit. The Liberals are champions of a balanced budget, and have been known to cut spending to achieve it.
This is centrisim, my friend.
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I consider that a conservative approach (and I would agree that Bush and Congress failed during his administration), so if our difference is in semantics - we agree in principle. Some how I don't really think that is the case though.