Reply #106: Really?

[ProSense]

"I'm not sure he is any more "progressive" than Clinton, or Carter, however.

What are the yardsticks?"

Clinton signed DOMA, DADT and NAFTA, repealed Glass-Steagall and enacted the Enron loophole, pretty much rounding out the de-regulation started by Carter.

Airline Deregulation Act

Jimmy Carter on deregulation, health care

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JIMMY CARTER: I would say that the most seminal change that affected the future was what you just mentioned, and that was deregulation. I was very much against government intrusion in private affairs, and so I thought that the airlines and the railroads and the banks all should be regulated. And they were while I was in office. It was a tremendous change.

RYSSDAL: Did it ever occur to you that part of the reason that this economy is in the state it's in -- that we've had the financial crisis and corporations with huge profits at the expense of workers and sometimes consumers -- is because you started this drive for deregulation that continued through Republican and Democratic administrations?

CARTER: No, that's not true. The elements that have resulted in the latest breakdown were done under a later president, I won't call his name. We kept tight control over the banking and finance committee. There was a constant monitoring of the loans to people. And in getting those loans and then selling those mortgages to other people, and indeed they would be resold again -- all of that was prohibited when I went out of office.

<...>

It's the Deregulation, Stupid

Then along came President Obama