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since the conservatives and some Democrats keep pushing for even more tax cuts to business. This is also a look at the Bush performance, by the numbers.
Would that the rest of us could forget so quickly. While we are now looking forward to changes with the Obama administration, we're currently living with the world W wrought. For the last eight years, conservatives weren't just digging a hole, they pulled out a squadron of excavators that have put craters all over the national map.
A lot of the numbers are familiar, but with the departure of the economic mangler in chief, it's worth a quick review just to get a look at the scope of the task ahead.
That's 3% in just the reported unemployment rate, which represents a 71% growth in unemployment. It's no surprise that this number is up during Bush's term. Here's a name that's likely to be repeated several times before we're through: Herbert Hoover. As inBush has presided over the worst annual job creation record of any president since Hoover.
The rising unemployment doesn't begin to capture the misery generated on the jobs front. Heading into November, Bush was barely in positive territory for job creation over his eight years, and with December's disastrous numbers, he may have been the first since Hoover to go negative. And then there are the folks who have simply given up on getting a job over the last eight years, those who have settled for being chronically employed, and those trapped in part time positions with limited income and benefits. All of which leads us to the next number.
If you look up the median income, a first glance makes it appear that families are making about $7K a year more now than when Bush came into office. That's until you figure in inflation. With that taken into account, American families actually lost ground. Of course, that's the median income across the board. For CEOs, income increased 223% in 2007 alone. But hey, all those massive CEO salaries, and the $120 billion in bonuses the top five Wall Street firms handed out in five years were surely worth it. Paying for the best, trickle down, etc. etc.
That's the kind of solid conservative thinking that got us where we are today.
Remember when Bush decided to use the "political capital" of his rousing 2004 "mandate" to push for moving Social Security funds into the market? As all of us watch our 401ks sink into the west, along with hopes for a comfortable retirement, we can be cheered at least to the degree that the Republicans didn't get their hands on the Social Security funds. Oh, and here's that phrase again: not since Herbert Hoover has the market suffered so badly under an administration. Bush's bad showing once again demonstrates that Republicans are bad for the stock market. The GOP notion of taking away all the rules and letting the market run wild has produced some good years, and also the worst years in market history.As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
So maybe we could have people invest some of their Social Security funds in the market... so long as we have only Democratic presidents.
Despite an unprecedented expansion of areas open to drilling, despite billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies, despite lots of fine rhetoric about energy independence, US Crude Oil Production fell 13% during Bush's term. Why? Because drilling your way out of an oil shortage is impossible. It takes decades to bring significant new production on line, and the massive reserves that show up in news stories are often far above the amount of oil that can actually be recovered. United States oil production peaked over three decades ago and despite all the drilling we've done since, we're now cranking out about half of what we produced in 1970. Drill offshore? Go ahead, but US production will decline. Drill the Arctic Refuge? It'll still decline. US oil production at the end of the Obama term will be significantly lower than it is today, no matter how many exploration rigs are mustered. That's not to say that oil companies won't make huge rafts of cash off any new discoveries. They will. It just won't translate into any improvement in the nation's oil dependence. Speaking of which...
See the story there? It's not just that we replaced our own declining production with more imports. It's worse. Oil imports are up 1.4 million barrels a day. US domestic production is down 800,000 barrels a day. Result? We'e in a much weaker position that when Bush Oil Company took over the nation.
Any Republican who ever again pretends that Democrats are the big spending party, or who claims that Republicans favor a balanced budget, should take forty lashes from the horsewhip of truth. Democrats handed Republicans a balanced budget. Then Republicans -- Republicans in charge of the House, of the Senate, and of the White House -- conspired to utterly wreck the tough negotiations that had made the balanced budget possible in favor of handing over bundles of cash to their high dollar donors and indulging their data-free ideas. Economic theories based on a napkin sketch didn't work under previous Republican regimes, and they didn't work this time.Bush wasn't just a Republican president, he was the Republican president. Bush was the guy who took everything on the GOP platform seriously. He went to bat for every idea that ever got the official elephant nuts seal of approval. The record that resulted isn't just a measure of Bush's incompetence, it's a measure of just how bad Republican ideas are in practice.
Republican insistence that the market could be self regulating wrecked the market... as it has every time it's been tried.
Republican insistence that rewarding folks who already had loads of cash was the best way to spark the economy failed to make things better for the average American and widened the gap between rich and poor... as it has every time it's been tried.
Republican insistence that giving the oil companies billions would result in a burst of domestic production failed... as it has every time it's been tried.
Republican insistence that the market alone would position us for our energy future left us more vulnerable to those who control overseas oil resources... as it has every time it's been tried.
Of course, there are plenty of other numbers to track. Illegal signing statements. Violations of the Constitution. Americans and non-Americans killed in an unnecessary war.
Still, you have to give the Bush administration at least one "A" on the grade card. The guy was great at recess.
Employment Statistics: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Oil Statistics: Energy Information Administration
Income Statistics: Census Bureau
Stock Market: Google finance
US Debt: Treasury Department
