DOWNLOADS: (288)

PLAYS: (2817)

Embed

Tea party-backed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that former Republican President Ronald Reagan is responsible for the country's economic success under former Democratic President Bill Clinton and the American people "don't really understand" economic growth.

Johnson told CNN host Soledad O'Brien on Tuesday that it would not be necessary to raise tax rates on the top 2 percent of earners because the country could collect "$750 billion of added revenue through economic growth" without changing tax rates or closing loopholes if the economy continues to recover.

O'Brien noted that the Republican Party was in the tenuous position of opposing the will of the majority of Americans who would like to see tax rates go up on the wealthiest.

"I would imagine that 98 percent of the American population would be in favor of that because we haven't made the case for economic growth," Johnson explained. "The American people really doesn't understand that economic growth is ten times more effective."

Democratic analyst Bob Shrum pointed out that Johnson's assertion that higher tax rates on top earners hurt economic growth was faulty because "under Bill Clinton, we had taxes at 39.6 percent and we created 22 million new jobs. We cut [tax rates] under George Bush and we had almost no net job creation."

"Why do you guys keep making the argument that low taxes for the richest people in the country are the key to job creation when history refutes that?" Shrum wondered.

"We could go do a history lesson, but I would argue that Clinton's economic recovery really dates back to Ronald Reagan," Johnson declared. "He cut rates 28 percent. Listen, I started my business in the '80s, so did Apple, so did Microsoft. Those businesses came to fruition in the '90s. And President Clinton, together with the peace dividend -- also produced by Ronald Reagan -- that's what created that economic engine."

In fact, Apple, Microsoft and Johnson's company, Pacur LLC, were all founded in the 1970s during the administrations of former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

The Wisconsin Republican continued by insisting that he would have to see cuts to Obama's health care reform law, Medicare and Social Security before he would even consider raising tax rates on the rich.

"The other problem that is holding our economy back is the explosion of regulations," he added. "And I don't see that we're going to reform these agencies -- the way that you reform them is there you actually cut their budgets because that will force them to focus on the most important parts of the economy to have effective regulations. So, I'd go after the agencies, I would put structural reform to save -- and that's the important point -- to save Social Security and Medicare. And we've got to address this health care law because it is a disaster."

"This is Fantasy Land," Shrum shot back. "It's like saying Ronald Reagan invented the Apple iPad. It's crazy. Obamacare is not going to be on the table."

"Here's the bottom line: President Obama, show us your plan," Johnson concluded.

"He gave you a plan," Shrum quipped. "And his plan is not to repeal Obamacare. Not going to happen. You lost the election, buddy."

President Obama called for "America to seize its own destiny" and stop depending on foreign oil in his Oval Office speech Tuesday. But Obama is just the latest in a long line of presidents who have tried to get the U.S. off of oil and failed.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart presented a little history lesson Wednesday to remind his viewers just how hard it is to beat the oil addiction.

Unlike many of his predecessors, Obama is one of the few presidents who has been willing say that oil is a finite resource.

"For decades we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America's innovation and seize control of our own destiny," Obama said in his Tuesday speech.

But the call to end the country's dependence on oil isn't a new one. In his 2006 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said, "This country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

"But back then in 2006 we didn't do it because oil dependence had at that point only entangled us in two simultaneous wars," Stewart noted. "But now it's gotten us into two wars and a giant spill. That's the push we needed," he said sarcastically.

"I wish we had taken care of this energy problem ten years ago when there was no war and the economy was great. That would have been a great time to develop a long-term energy strategy," said Stewart.

At the time, President Bill Clinton did have a similar idea. "We need a long-term energy strategy to maximize conservation and the maximize the development of alternative sources of energy," Clinton said in 2000.

"And we would have done it too if he hadn't gotten distracted by that other spill," Stewart joked.

Perhaps Clinton was just echoing his predecessor. In 1988, President George H.W. Bush said, "There is no security for the United states in further dependence on foreign oil."

"I bet the four guys before him would have gotten us off of foreign oil too if they had thought of it," Stewart continued.

But they did.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan told a joint session of Congress, "We will continue supportive research leading to the development of new technologies and more independence of foreign oil."

In a 1979 speech, President Jimmy Carter appeared outraged at the "intolerable dependence on foreign oil."

President Gerald Ford touted "standby emergency programs to achieve the independence we want" in 1975.

"We'll break the back of the energy crisis. We will lay the foundation for our future capacity to meet America's energy needs from America's own resources," President Richard Nixon said in his 1974 State of the Union address.

Stewart was nearly speechless failure of the last eight presidents. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me eight times, am I a f**king idiot?" he wondered.

DOWNLOADS: (256)

PLAYS: (384)

Embed

Rachel Maddow recounts the lip service given to the need for our country to get off of its oil dependence by our political leaders while one disaster after another continues to wreak havoc our environment.