Time is money

National | Economic crunch is taking time from parents and children

Ladies and gentlemen: no one but Bill Clinton could claim this is the best economy we've had in 30 years. The truth is, we had a better economy in 22 of the past 30 years.

Under President Clinton, the economy has grown at a 2.3 percent annual rate. This is down from 3.2 percent for the previous decade. This year-President Clinton's best year-the economy has performed worse than in the worst of the Reagan expansion years. And those aren't just numbers that fascinate economists like me.

This is the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression and it can only be attributed to President Clinton's record-setting 1993 tax hike. That translates into stagnant family incomes. That means the typical family has seen no increase in its income since President Clinton took office.