During the late eighties and late nineties, the economy did well and many new millionaires and billionaires were created. The liberal Economic Policy Institute reported that there was a large gap between the rich and the poor in the eighties and that in the nineties the gap got even larger. During the eighties, Rather blamed the alleged disparity on the Republican president (Reagan) but did not mention it during the Clinton years.
"With the economy humming, CBS's White House correspondent Scott Pelley reports, President Clinton was singing his own praises, this time with the facts and figures to back him up."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 6, 1998.
"[I]t is not partisan to say that during the Clinton years the economy has been outstandingly good. That's a fact."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 12, 1999.
"In America in the 1980s, what former President Reagan and those who support him call the Reagan Revolution put more money in the pockets of the rich. We already knew that. But a new study indicates that those who did best of all by far were the very richest of the rich."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 5, 1992.
"Everyone knows the rich got richer in the 1980s. Now a new study shows how dramatic the change was. According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of America's new wealth went to the richest one-half of one percent of families. The bottom 60 percent of families in income saw no gain or got poorer."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 29, 1992.
