Thursday, 06 Sep 2012 03:26 PM

By Bill Spetrino

I am an independent voter and a professional investor who has made money during all different presidential administrations, including the current administration.

To me, it’s all about being able to distinguish between fact and fiction. My documented almost 30 percent annual compounded return in my Dividend Machine newsletter is proof of my abilities.

For me it’s not about party but performance.

Simply put, Presidents John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all had higher tax receipts after cutting overall tax rates or capital gains tax rates.

Anyone who tells you that tax cuts do not lead to higher tax receipts should pursue a career in government not investing.

Clinton, one of the presidents who cut taxes, gave a long, one-hour speech Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention that rewrote a very different view of history than I experienced. I started with $8,000 in January 1993 and reached financial independence by 2004.

Let me tell you the facts as I saw them over the past 20 years.

In Clinton's first two years, in which he had a Democratic Congress, unemployment rates were 6.9 percent and 6.1 percent. In Clinton's last six years in office, a Republican Congress was in charge and the average unemployment rate was 4.75 percent. In fact, during the 12 years the Republican Congress was in charge for the first time in over 40 years (six years under Clinton and six years under Bush), unemployment didn’t rise above 6 percent.

In 1995, after Democrats lost the majority in the House and Senate, Clinton, in an ingenious bipartisan move, decided to sign the Reform Welfare Bill, which the Republican Congress gave him after he vetoed it twice. In 1997, he cut the capital gains tax by 28.5 percent, which along with the Internet boom lowered the unemployment rate and created millions of jobs. In turn, the higher tax receipts helped America achieve a balanced budget in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000

Clinton was a leader who understood the need for compromise and getting work done in a bipartisan manner.

Wednesday night, he somehow neglected to mention the recession that started less than two months after George W. Bush took office and the devastating effect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, after which America lost almost 1 million jobs in three months.

Instead of blaming someone else for his misfortune, George W. Bush and the Republican Congress presided over an economy that had HIGHER tax receipts for eight years than Clinton had during his eight-year term. That was MUCH lower than Clinton's record when the Democrats controlled Congress

However, the deficits got much larger under George W. Bush and the Republican Congress because of their inability to reform the largest sector of the budget — entitlements: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The Democrats took over both Houses in 2007 and 2008 and the economy began to weaken. I do not think their policies caused the economy to weaken, but they too seemed unwilling and unable to deal with the entitlements and, in fact, didn't seem to have much problem with expanding government.

President Barack Obama took over at a time when unemployment was 7.9 percent and the recession had started, very similar to what George W. Bush had faced.

An ill-advised stimulus, at a cost of $787 billion, created 1.5 million jobs. But any person who understands simple math knows that spending over $500,000 per job is a poor use of taxpayers’ dollars. This created even higher deficits and again there was no discussion of reforming entitlement programs. In fact, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, which expands the strain on the federal budget despite what anyone says.

Like Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama lost his control of Congress, and most observers, me included, thought he would move toward the center and work with House Republicans.

Instead, he submitted budgets that got ZERO Democratic votes in the House and Senate and were publicly panned by Democrat Erskine Bowles, co-chair of Obama’s budget deficit commission. His jobs bill was something Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, “has some good parts of it, but no Senator agrees with it in its entirety.”

Again the president never submitted any alternative budget or jobs bill when he saw that no Democrat or Republican would support them.

Unlike Clinton, who lowered capital gains tax rates, Obama's plan wants to raise capital gains rates and more than double the rates on dividend income for those people who earn more than $250,000.

I hope these facts will help you be enlightened in this presidential election year.

About the Author: Bill Spetrino

Bill Spetrino is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He is also the editor of the Dividend Machine. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.

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