David Stockman on the Trump record as president

Grover Cleveland was the anti-Trump.  He stood for something worth winning the White House to advance.  That is, staunch adherence to sound money under the gold standard, free trade, budget surpluses, non-intervention abroad and a small Federal government in Washington. 

Needless to say, the Donald is about his own advancement and glory rather than any of these principles.  We dare say he has never made the acquaintance of most of them.

Indeed, without welfare domestically and foreign wars abroad, Cleveland was able to leave the $1.62 billion public debt he inherited 25% lower at $1.22 billion when he left office.  That was a far cry from the Donald’s $8 trillion add to the national debt—more than the first 43 presidents during the initial 216 years of the republic managed to accomplish on a combined basis.

Indeed, the very antithesis of Trumpite statism—classic 19th century liberalism— was in its heyday during Grover Cleveland’s time, and Cleveland was the closest thing to its living, breathing embodiment to ever occupy the Oval Office.  And that was notwithstanding the fact he was a Democrat to boot, albeit of the old-fashioned Jefferson/Jackson kind.

Needless to say, the Democrats gave up half of Cleveland’s classic liberal legacy under Woodrow Wilson and his foolish war to make the world safe for democracy aboard and government hospitable to interventionist progressivism at home.  And the rest of it disappeared entirely when the greatest egomaniac to occupy the Oval Office prior to the Donald—Franklin Roosevelt–installed the permanent Welfare State and Warfare State on the banks of the Potomac during 1933-1945.

As it happened, the Republican Party of Congressman Howard Buffett (Warren’s father), Senator Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan made worthy efforts to reclaim the mantle of Grover Cleveland during their time on the stage of American politics.  But Cleveland’s only true heir in modern times was former congressman and presidential candidate, Ron Paul.

And that crystalizes the irony and tragedy of the current insipid GOP hero worship of a man who is no hero whatsoever when it comes to the true conservative gospel articulated by Grover Cleveland.

To the contrary, Donald Trump is the opposite of Ron Paul—a veritable anti-Grover Cleveland.  That is, an egomaniacal big government Ceasarist who peddles a dog’s breakfast of protectionism, nativism, law and order demagoguery, monetary crankery worthy of William Jennings Bryan and fiscal profligacy that puts FDR, LBJ and Barrack Obama to shame.

[...]

That gets us to the bottom line.  The truth of the matter is that the real GDP growth rate during the Donald’s term was the absolute lowest of any presidential term since 1950, and by a country mile in virtually all cases.  The Greatest Economy Ever claim just doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

Real GDP Growth Per Annum During Presidential Terms Since 1950: 

•  Eisenhower (1953-1960): 2.52%. 
• Kennedy-Johnson (1961-1968: 5.19%. 
• Nixon-Ford (1969-1967: 2.73%. 
• Carter (1977-1980): 3.19%. 
• Reagan (1981-1988): 3.55%. 
• Bush the Elder (1989-1992): 2.21%. 
• Clinton (1992-2000): 3.81%. 
• Bush the Younger (2001-2008): 
• 1.75%. Obama (2009-2016): 1.94%. 
• Trump (2017-2020): 1.25%. 
• All Presidents, 1954-2016: 3.00%.

Of course, what the Donald did excel at was running up the Federal debt like never before.  Even compared to the previous three big spenders in the Oval Office, the Donald won the prize for shackling future taxpayers, born and unborn, with heretofore unimaginable amounts of new debt: 

Average Annual Increase in the Public Debt: 

• Clinton: $203 billion. 
• Bush: $655 billion. 
• Obama: $1.132 trillion. 
• Trump: $2.334 trillion. 

Likewise, the modern Fed needs no encouragement from the White House to expand its balance sheet aggressively and thereby pump fiat credit into the canyons of Wall Street, where it mostly lingers to inflate the prices of financial assets skyward. 

But in the Donald’s case, he not only encouraged a reckless rate of money-pumping from the Eccles Building; he incessantly demanded it in relentless, bully-boy fashion. 

Accordingly, the data below is the true skunk on the wood pile. At the end of the day, sound money is the sine qua non of capitalist prosperity, and the GOP is its designated watchman in the context of America’s two-party democracy. 

On that score the Donald failed miserably. 

Per Annum Change in the Fed’s Balance Sheet, 2000-2020: Bush (2001-2008): $185 billion. Obama (2009-2016): $295 billion. Trump (2017-2020): $750 billion.

~ David Stockman, "Why Economic Conservatives Must Stop the Donald at the 269-Vote LineWhy Economic Conservatives Must Stop the Donald at the 269-Vote Line," David Stockman's Contra Corner, June 1, 2024

Robert Higgs on the measure of a great president

My idea of a great president is one who acts in accordance with his oath of office to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."  Not since the presidency of Grover Cleveland has any president achieved greatness by this standard.  Worse, the most admired have been those who failed most miserably.  Evidently my standard differs from that employed by others who judge presidential greatness.

~ Robert Higgs, "No More Great Presidents," The Free Market, March 1997

Grover Cleveland
1931

Robert Higgs on Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland, though far from perfect, may have been the best [president]. He kept the country at peace. He respected the Constitution, acknowledging that the national government has only a limited mission to perform and shaping his policies accordingly. He fought to lower tariffs; preserved the gold standard in its time of crisis; and restored order forcibly when hoodlums disturbed the peace on a wide front during the great railroad strike of 1894.

~ Robert Higgs, Research Director for the Independent Institute and editor of The Independent Review, "No More Great Presidents," Mises.org, February 19, 2007

Grover Cleveland on a sound and stable currency

Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to the beneficent purposes of our Government than a sound and stable currency. Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity the most enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation in the purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the strongest incentive to prompt and conservative precaution.

Grover Cleveland in his second inaugural address, March 4, 1893

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897)
1938

Grover Cleveland on vetoing a bill to help Texas farmers

I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevailing tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people.

The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.

~ Grover Cleveland, veto message of a relief bill that appropriated $10,000 to the Texas farmers who had suffered a long, devastating drought, 1880s

Cleveland on foreign policy

The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people…dictate the scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy commended by the history, the traditions and the prosperity of the Republic.  It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and defended by our known love of justice and by our power. It is the policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is the policy of neutrality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other continents and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy of Monroe and of Washington and Jefferson-- "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none."

~ Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th U.S. president, first inaugural address, March 4, 1885

Cleveland on adversity

In calm water every ship has a good captain.

~ Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th U.S. president

Grover Cleveland
1922-1925