To the Congress of the United States:
An all-directions reform of our health care system--so that every citizen will be able to get quality health care at reasonable cost regardless of income and regardless of area of residence--remains an item of highest priority on my unfinished agenda for America in the 1970s. In the ultimate sense, the general good health of our people is the foundation of our national strength, as well as being the truest wealth that individuals can possess. Nothing should impede us from doing whatever is necessary to bring the best possible health care to those who do not now have it--while improving health care quality for everyone--at the earliest possible time.
In 1971, I submitted to the Congress my new National Health Strategy which would produce the kind of health care Americans desire and deserve, at costs we all can afford. - Richard Nixon
"In August 1971, hoping to dampen rising inflation, Nixon declared a freeze on wages and prices. Initially the freeze applied to everything, later just oil and gas. World oil prices were fairly stable during this time; not surprisingly, so were gas pump prices. If you weren’t paying much attention, you might think the price freeze had worked.
ReplyDeleteThen came the real test. On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, igniting the Yom Kippur War. Nixon sent money and supplies to Israel. Partly in retaliation, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a 70 percent increase in the price of oil, and not long after Arab countries declared an embargo on oil exports to the U.S. Oil production was cut 25 percent.
A cease-fire ended major fighting within weeks, but skirmishes continued through the winter, and the Arab states kept up the oil embargo till March. By then world oil prices had risen from $3 a barrel to $12. Amid calls for rationing, worried U.S. consumers formed long lines at gas stations; some operators ran out.
What effect did the Nixon price controls have on all of this? Not much. The pump price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose from 38 cents in May 1973 to 55 cents a year later — a laughable amount now, but a big jump then. Scholarly analysis of the Nixon controls suggests they had only a trivial impact on gas prices."
"In retrospect, some would call the Nixon presidency the "last liberal administration." This was not only because of the imposition of economic controls. It also carried out a great expansion of regulation into new areas, launching affirmative action and establishing the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "Probably more new regulation was imposed on the economy during the Nixon administration than in any other presidency since the New Deal," Herbert Stein ruefully observed."
ReplyDeleteI would call the Bush administration the last, he introduced the drug coverage provision for Medicare, the greatest increase in benefits ever for that program. Like Obamacare, which is a boon for the insurance industry, the drug provision was a big gift to the pharmaceutical industry.
DeleteAug. 15, 2011, is the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s colossal error: severing the final link between the dollar and gold. No other single action by Nixon has had a more profound and deleterious effect on the American people. In the end, breaking the solemn promise that a dollar was worth 1/35th of an ounce of gold doomed his Presidency, and marked the beginning of the worst 40 years in American economic history.
DeleteSince Nixon killed the gold standard, the unemployment rate has averaged over 6% and we have suffered the three worst recessions since the end of World War II. The unemployment rate averaged 8.5% in 1975, almost 10% in 1982, and has been above 8.8% for more than two years, with little evidence of any improvement ahead.
This performance is horrendous compared to the post World War II gold standard era, which lasted from 1947 to 1970. During those 21 years of economic ups and downs, unemployment averaged less than 5% and never rose above 7%.
Growth, too, has slowed. Since able men and women were given the power to manipulate the quantity and value of the dollar, real economic growth has averaged 2.9% a year – more than a full percentage point slower than the 4% growth rate during the post World War II gold standard era.
A 1% difference may not seem like much, but in reality it is the difference between prosperity and austerity. A growth rate of 3% creates just enough jobs for all new workers. A growth rate of 4% yields higher employment and a decline in the unemployment rate.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2011/08/15/nixons-colossal-monetary-error-the-verdict-40-years-later/
Damn! You mean a lot of this regulation wasn't Obama's fault. Damn and here you are trying for 5 years to convince American that he did it all.
ReplyDeleteActually it goes back to Eisenhower, another one of those liberal Presidents. Fifty-six years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a kind of universal health care.
DeleteEisenhower asked Congress for $25 million to fund what he called health "reinsurance."
Under the Eisenhower plan, private insurance companies who extended benefits to uninsured Americans would be reimbursed by the federal government should they incur excessive loses. In a way, the government was insuring the insurers.
The House soundly rejected the Eisenhower plan. The Senate wouldn't touch it.
25 million 1958, $202,349,480.97 today.
DeleteSeems like it may be unsustainable.
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DeletePerhaps that's why he refers to it as Obamacare instead of the PPACA or for short the ACA.
DeleteWants all the credit, so it's his.
He didn't call it Obamacare, you righties did. He finally just accepted the name.
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