When you file your taxes this year, you may wonder why you pay so much. One place to look is the Wall Street Journal and its former editorial page director, the late Robert Bartley.
Bartley was an early proponent of supply side economics and is credited with pushing President Ronald Reagan to adopt the economic policy. The resulting exploding deficits, crushing national debt, and huge amounts of interest paid out by the government each year is testament to Bartley's success. With the current resident of the White House also a proponent, Americans will continue to reap the rewards of Bartley's legacy on future tax days.
If you wonder whether one person, who many may have never heard of, could be responsible for the government's poor economic situation, consider what Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes said "How many other editorial pages can say they created the economic policy for an administration and for an era? Without The Wall Street Journal editorial page, there is no supply side economics."
When Reagan took office the national debt was around $930 billion dollars. When he left it was $2.6 TRILLION, a 280% increase. For comparison, the debt was around $4 trillion when Bill Clinton took office and around $5.6 when he left, a 40% increase over eight years. Today the debt is $7.1 trillion, a $1.5 trillion increase in THREE years. Most of the increase during Clinton's term was left over from Bush I, which was a hangover from Reagan. In Clinton's final THREE years the debt only increased by $260 billion or 4.8%.
In addition to contributing to America's national deficit, Bartley played a large role in developing today's divisive political landscape. As editorial page editor of the Journal, Bartley helped develop a mean and nasty strain of commentary that has permeated American society. Quick to blame his opponents for society's problems, he was unwilling to consider his role in the resulting mess.
During Bill Clinton's presidency, Bartley lead an ugly, nasty campaign against Clinton, highlighted by possibly playing a role in leading White House aide Vince Foster to commit suicide following a series of editorials attacking him. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted that "after a torn-up note in Foster's briefcase complained that "the WSJ editors lie without consequence," the Journal's editors questioned the suicide rulings of the Park Police and a Virginia coroner."
Jack Shafer wrote in Slate "There's a thin line between hard-hitting opinion journalism and character assassination, a line that Bartley frequently erased."
Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley called Bartley's Wall Street Journal editorial page "a central cog in the vast right-wing conspiracy" and its editorials often "irresponsible" and "intellectually dishonest."
The Arkansas Times saw much of Bartley's work up close and noted "Former Boston Globe columnist David Warsh sums up Bartley's career: "Bob Bartley was a corrosive force in American life. Almost single-handedly, he made extremism respectable."
Bartley's methods were well known in the journalism world but for the most part were excused and tolerated. However in 1996 the Columbia Journalism Review reviewed the Journal's editorial page and wrote:
"Unlike the Journal's meticulously researched in-depth news columns, which many consider a model of journalistic excellence, the editorial page rarely offers balance, is often unfair, and is riddled with errors -- distortions and outright falsehoods of every kind and stripe. And when the errors are challenged, the Journal is less than eager to set the record straight. The page might stand accused of sloppiness except that the errors always seem to bolster the Journal's point of view. Under editor Robert Bartley, the policy seems to be ideology above all else."
When Bartley died at 66 in December 2003 reaction was mixed with mainstream press treating him with respect and on-line press pointing out his faults. Whether one wants to forgive him for his actions, it will be difficult to forget his corrosive impact on America and nearly impossible to escape his harmful impact on America's economic scene.
