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…we don’t have to hear about how great the economy was thanks to Bill Clinton, and how George W. Bush destroyed it the moment he took the presidency. Here is Clinton himself with a version of that lie:

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding debt; from over 22 million new jobs to just 5 million; from increasing working families’ incomes to nearly $7,500 a year to a decline of more than $2,000 a year; from almost 8 million Americans lifted out of poverty to more than 5.5 million driven into poverty; and millions more losing their health insurance.

Now that the Republicans are out, we get treated to whole new Democratic lies about the economic history of the United States, re-tailored to meet the political needs of moment — that is, to move everything way to the Left, not just back to where Clinton had it near the center. Here’s Dean Baker, the uber-Leftist econo-hack and Big Labor tool, with the new narrative. Okay everyone on the left, press your “record” buttons and listen carefully. This is what you are all expected to parrot constantly, starting now.

Rather than handing George Bush a booming economy, Clinton handed over an economy that was propelled by an unsustainable stock bubble and distorted by a hugely over-valued dollar…

It is important to separate Clinton-era mythology from the real economic record. In the mythology, Clinton’s decision to raise taxes and cut spending led to an investment boom. This boom led to a surge in productivity growth. Soaring productivity growth led to the low unemployment of the late 1990s and wage gains for workers at all points along the wage distribution.

At the end of the administration, there was a huge surplus, and we set target dates for paying off the national debt. The moral of the myth is that all good things came from deficit reduction.

The reality was quite different.