So George Bush and Bill Frist want to talk about the economy and avoid their debacle in Iraq? Never mind the astronomical economic drain that spending $2 billion a week in Iraq has on the economy or how much the cost will be to our economy to treat the 20,000 Americans wounded thus far.
But, if they want to focus on the economy, I say let’s do that. What first, the stock market? As you read here just last week, Bush and the Republicans cannot brag about the stock market. In fact, they’re very weak on that front and Bush's stock market rate increases have not even kept up with inflation.
Do Republicans want to talk about the housing market? The worst drop in 36 years? I doubt Bill Frist will be bragging about that anytime soon.
How about ‘real’ wages? I didn’t think so either, since real wages have fallen 2% since 2003.
And jobs? I have to laugh when I hear Bush and Republicans talk about job growth. Bush and Republicans have been miserable failures when it comes to job growth. Do you want a comparison between what they have done and what Bill Clinton did with job growth? Read this tidbit of facts from Media Matters on Clinton vs. Bush on jobs.
"Additionally, Stephanopoulos did not follow up on Bush's claim that his administration has "[a]dded 6.6 million new jobs since August 2003." But Bush was touting job growth over a selected timeframe, ignoring earlier job losses. In fact, as Media Matters has documented, the economy lost jobs in 24 of the first 30 full months of Bush's presidency (February 2001 through July 2003), shedding a net total of approximately 2.6 million jobs during that period, according to "Total Nonfarm Employment -- Seasonally Adjusted" data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Overall, 3.2 million new jobs have been created in the first 68 months of the Bush presidency. In contrast, the first 68 months of the Clinton presidency saw a net gain of approximately 16.8 million jobs, according to the same BLS survey, with a net gain of 22.7 million jobs by the end of Clinton's second term in January 2001".It's NOT just the economy, stupid. It's the war in Iraq and the economy and the truth is clear and simple; If you know your facts on the economy and Iraq, Republicans don't want to talk about either one!
