Hell of a job George

Commentary By Ron Beasley

It didn't take long for my fortunes to tank - in late 2001 my company and my job as a manufacturing engineer were shipped off to China.  For others it took longer but I wasn't alone.

Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy

Thursday's annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and
access to health care-the Bureau's principal report card on the
well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record
of George W. Bush. 

It's not a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride.

On
every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the
country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While Bush was in office,
the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood
poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health
insurance spiked. By contrast, the country's condition improved on each
of those measures during Bill Clinton's two terms, often substantially.

The Census' final report card on Bush's record
presents an intriguing backdrop to today's economic debate. Bush built
his economic strategy around tax cuts, passing large reductions both in
2001 and 2003. Congressional Republicans are insisting that a similar
agenda focused on tax cuts offers better prospects of reviving the
economy than President Obama's combination of some tax cuts with heavy
government spending. But the bleak economic results from Bush's two
terms, tarnish, to put it mildly, the idea that tax cuts represent an
economic silver bullet.

The Lost Decade (unless you were in the top one percent)

The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining
label, something as catchy as Tom Wolfe�s �Me Decade� of the 1970s or
the �Silent Generation� of 1950s men in gray flannel suits. Bookmarked
by the horror of 9/11 and the history of a black president, the aughts
certainly don�t lack for drama.

But last week, lost in the commotion over the brat�s cry of Joe
Wilson and the shotgun blast of rage in the Washington protest,
something definitive was released just as this decade nears its curtain
call.

For average Americans, the last 10 years were a lost decade. At the
end of President George W. Bush�s eight years in office, American
households had less money and less economic security, and fewer of them
were covered by health care than 10 years earlier, the Census Bureau
reported in its annual survey.

The poverty rate in 2008 rose to 13.2 percent, the highest in 11
years, while median household income fell to $50,303. Ten years
earlier, adjusted for inflation, it was $51,295.

I am forced here to kind of come to the defense of George W, Bush.  In reality the lost decade for most is simply the culmination of Reaganomics - trickle down economics - supply side economics.  Ludwig Von Mises who came up with term "supply side economics" for Reagan's David Stockman  admitted it was a sham to put more money into the pockets of the rich, bankrupt the federal government, and neuter the middle class.