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Bush is bad for business. He has absolutely no comprehension of
what is good for the American economy (although his personal accounts
and those of his cronies are no doubt getting fatter).
Brainwashed Bush sympathizers in the Republican Camp try to weasel
out of the Republican's responsibility for the current economic
crisis by claiming the U.S. is just recovering from the "economic
bubble" of the Clinton era. Yeah, right. These are the same
people who, five years ago, were claiming the great economic success
of the 1990s was due to the delayed effects of Reaganomics. Yeah,
right.
Consider the following statistics, taken from The Economist:
- America has lost more than two million jobs since Mr. Bush
took office -- more than 500,000 in the past three months alone
(as of May 15, 2003)! Bill Clinton presided over the creation
of 23 million new jobs, while even George Bush senior created
2.5
million.
- Long-term unemployment, at 1.9 million, is at its highest for
ten years. George Jr. will be the first president since 1945
to go into an election
having
supervised
a net growth
in
unemployment.
- The cost of health-care insurance accelerated to 6.1 percent
in the first three months of 2003 -- the highest rate since 1992,
when costs were actually decelerating.
The only index that could be characterized as having experienced
an "economic bubble" would be the NASDAQ, which is full
of technology stocks. There was indeed a bubble in this sector.
However, both the Dow Industrials, which represent the backbone
of big business in America, and the S&P 500, which represents
small business, experienced steady and significant growth during
the Clinton years, followed by a crash immediately after Bush took
power. This was because of a drop in consumer confidence based
on both the Bush coup d'etat, and his doomsday rhetoric.Consider
the indicators from the major indices:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen by almost a quarter
since January 2001:
The indicators from the S&P 500 are just as bad, and this is
generally a measurement of the "Mom-and-Pop" -type small
businesses:
The NASDAQ experienced a bubble in the late 1990's, driven by the
Internet hype of that era. When you compare it with the Dow or the
S&P500, you will see that the economy in the main indices grew
significantly, due to the astute economic policies of the Clinton
Administration, and not the "bubble" that Bush, Jr. and
Company are claiming.
Furthermore, Bush's bad economic sense is resulting in an enormous
debt, which he is saddling on future administrations -- and future
generations. More on this.
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