Willie--once in a while, could you try on a bit of optimism for a change?What is there to be optimistic about?
Here's the scorecard on 4 years of Dubya's "achievements":
US drops out of world's 10 freest economies list, says WSJ
He exports our businesses and industries,
undercuts our wages and benefits with illegal immigrant labor,
and buries us unimaginably deeper in National Debt.
The PRI has ruled over an "ownership society" in Mexico for decades,
I'm simply unenchanted by Dubya's efforts to foist the same scam on the American Middle Class.
Read this :
"The household measure shows a 2.5 million jobs gain during Bush’s first term and a whopping 4.2 million increase since the end of the 2001 recession. It’s a real measure, too: It gives us the unemployment rate. It also does not triple-count job gains or losses, as is the case with the payroll survey, while it does include self-employed workers and independent contractors, key parts of our new Internet-based information economy.
Then there’s the positive impact of reduced marginal tax rates. The Bush supply-side tax cuts were implemented early in 2003, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a burst technology bubble, and the corporate scandals. They caused an immediate jolt to the economy, as both employment and investment responded to a badly-needed dose of economic incentives. By taxing work and investment less, the economy got much more of both.
Here are a few simple facts.
In the six quarters after Bush’s tax cuts, real GDP expanded at a 4.6 percent annual rate, much faster than the 2.5 percent pace of the six earlier recovery quarters. Consumer spending jumped from 2.8 percent to 3.9 percent Business investment in new plant and equipment surged to 13.4 percent from only 1 percent before the tax cuts. Personal income jumped to a 5 percent growth rate, nearly double the earlier speed of 2.6 percent. The average employment gain (combining both surveys) was 2.4 million compared with virtually no gain before the tax cuts.
Corporate profits, without which businesses cannot create jobs, now stand at a record $1.118 trillion — 56 percent above their recession trough, 25 percent above the prior recovery peak of the late ’90s, and at a near-record 9.5 percent of GDP. Broad stock market averages have jumped 60 percent from their lows. Home ownership is at an all-time high, as are existing home sales. U.S. household wealth stands at a record $51 trillion."
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/kudlow/kudlow200412300923.asp
There, that should cheer you up some. :)