Surviving in that "awful" Bush economy....

[Pangloss]

Well I've been ragging on Republicans lately over morality issues. I think it's time to give them a pat on the back over economics, which were an important cornerstone in John Kerry's campaign. (Reminder: I voted for Kerry, so give me a little credit for objectivity here.)

 

The States collected a record $600 billion in tax income last year, according to this report from ABC News(1). Some states don't know what to do with it all. Republican governor Mitt Romney wants to give it back to his constituents but his Democrat-controlled state legislators thinks that would be irresponsible (gee). Florida saw a huge surplus in spite of four hurricane strikes and a record number(2) of claims that surpassed even the disastrous 1992 Hurricane Andrew event (though not dollar amount, thanks to Republican legislature-mandated building codes).

 

The GDP, the indicator most often cited by the far left in 2004 as a sign of our economic "rough times", is up(3). Personal incomes and spending are also up(4). This certainly doesn't seem to jive with the claim that everyone is getting laid off and having to settle for lower-paying jobs, now does it? The way some in the far left were selling it, we'd all be working for Wal-Mart by now if we'd re-elected Bush. But that doesn't seem to have happened.

 

Speaking of jobs, they just keep growing and growing. They were up another 274,000 in April. The monthly figures have been up every single month for almost two years now, and have been over 120,000 for 9 straight months.(5)

 

Meanwhile Americans are watching an average of 78 hours of DVDs per year (about a movie per week), according to the MPAA(6). 2006 will be the year of HDTV, according to one consumer group(7). We sure seem to be spending a lot of time entertaining ourselves, and conspicuously not out foraging for our daily provender or tearing down the government fortresses of Washington or the corporate fortresses of New York. I guess we must be doing okay....

 

Seems like the only bad news these days is the price of oil(8), and even that was down something like eight weeks in a row before it went back up again last week in advance of Memorial Day. I guess you'd also have to count the trade deficit, the budget deficit, and the national debt, but those are long-term concerns and the budget deficit seems to be under at least some degree of control.

 

You know, with rough times like these, one has to wonder what the GOOD times will be like! We'd better get those "wrong-headed tax cuts" (9) repealed in a big hurry or we're gonna be in for more of this horrible economy, for sure! After all, that tax cut was "ill-considered" (10), and "too big"!(11)

 

Sources:

1: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=794714&page=1

2: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2005/05/26/55485.htm

3: http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow200505270859.asp

4: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Economy.html?

5: http://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm

6: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/business/media/27movie.html?ex=1274846400&en=e13dc8a7977cee1a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

7: http://changewaveresearch.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0272-921_ITM

8: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=796394

9: http://www.dailyorange.com/media/paper522/news/2004/02/19/Opinion/From-The.Left.Bushs.Economics.Work.For.Rich-612287.shtml

10: http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/001579.html

11: http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%26%288%20%2DP1%3F%27%0A

[Douglas]

Does this mean we're not in as bad of shape as the Dems say we are?

 

Is the NY times et al clobbering Bush via the military's alarming and horrific injustice's to the POW's.....because they can't crucify him on the dreadful state of the economy??

 

Edited to add...link 3 ...I always liked Larry Kudlow, maybe because I liked what he had to say. I've watched him on Kudlow and Kramer, but haven't tuned in for awhile.