Booming for Bush
NCPA
Published: 04-10-07
Given the economic conditions each inherited, President Bush's economy has prospered more than President Clinton's, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).
In fact, the economy was a mess when Bush came in -- unlike the one Clinton inherited, which was growing at a rate of more than 4 percent. But Bush cut taxes, three times in all, and the economy improved, says IBD:
§ As shown by last week's employment report -- 180,000 new jobs in March, with unemployment falling to 4.4 percent -- the economy is still growing strongly.
§ Since August 2003, the economy has created more than 7.8 million jobs -- 2 million in just the last 12 months -- capping a string of 43 straight months of job growth.
§ Real after-tax incomes have risen $2,900 per person since Bush took office, and in the last 12 months real wages grew 1.8 percent -- a pace faster than in Clinton's final years.
§ Productivity growth of 2.8 percent a year since 2001 outstrips the average for the last three decades.
In sum, we Americans have amassed more wealth, have bigger incomes, live in larger homes, enjoy better health and are more educated than ever, says IBD. These great triumphs are part of a long boom going back to Ronald Reagan, whose fiscal policies Bush emulated.
Yet what Congress is doing now to place this boom in jeopardy. As tax analyst Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation has noted, the recent budget resolution from the Democrats would raise taxes by $2,641 per household each year over the next decade. Each year, this will cost the economy $75 billion in real gross domestic product (GDP), kill 709,000 jobs and erase about $200 billion in personal income.
Source: Editorial, "Booming for Bush," Investor's Business Daily, April 10, 2007.
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