For over a year, Bush has said — repeatedly — that because Congress agreed to his plan to cut taxes by trillions of dollars, we experienced “one of the shallowest recessions our country has had.”
This is debatable, of course, and probably just wishful thinking on the part of the White House. But if it makes the president feel better, fine.
The story on unemployment is a little more complicated. Bush said his 2001 tax cut would create jobs in America. It didn’t; unemployment got worse after it passed. Bush’s explanation has shifted as to why this occurred. First the job market fared poorly because of the recession, then because of 9/11, then because of corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom, then because of the war in Iraq.
So, naturally, Bush asked Congress to pass more tax cuts, and they were only too happy to oblige. Unemployment, meanwhile, still grew.
For this administration, tax cuts for the wealthy necessarily means lower unemployment. The president seems to accept this blindly.
So what happens when reality conflicts with Bush’s preconceived orthodoxy? He starts making stuff up.
Over the weekend, Bush devoted his weekly radio address to discussing his optimism for the economy. He also made one audacious claim that was silly, even for Bush.
“The best way to promote growth and job creation is to leave more money in the pockets of households and small businesses, instead of taxing it away,” Bush said, repeating his favorite talking point. Then Bush shifted to what happens after the tax cuts take effect.
“We are starting to see results from our actions,” Bush said. “My administration’s economists believe that if we had not passed tax relief, our unemployment rate would have been nearly one percentage point higher, and as many as 1.5 million Americans would not have the jobs they have today.”
Now this is rich. Bush has the worst record on employment in America since Hoover. He will be the first president in 70 years to oversee negative job growth. Every solution Bush has proposed to create new jobs has failed.
Whereas Clinton created over 10 million new jobs in his first term as president, the U.S. has lost over 3 million private sector jobs since Bush was inaugurated. An additional 1.4 million Americans are working part-time jobs despite seeking full-time employment. Among the unemployed, over 2 million people have been searching in vain for a job for over 6 months.
As president, Bush has tackled unemployment by cutting taxes on the wealthy (who must already have jobs, or they wouldn’t have taxes to cut), while cutting unemployment insurance, funds for job search assistance, and money for employment re-training.
Now Bush wants us to believe that were it not for his bold leadership on behalf of the millionaires and billionaires who benefited from his tax cuts, things would be a whole lot worse. The unemployment rate has grown to over 6%? Bush says his tax cuts prevented the rate from reaching 7%. 3 million private sector jobs have disappeared? Bush says without his tax cuts, it’d be 4.5 million.
As proof, Bush points to…nothing in particular. In his radio address, Bush said his economists simply “believe” this to be true. Yeah, that’s reassuring. These same economists “believed” Bush’s policies would balance the budget and yet we have the biggest deficit in the history of the world.
There’s no data from OMB, or the Congressional Budget Office, or the Departments of Commerce or Labor. Bush simply asserts this to be true. Things are bad, Bush says, but we should thank him for making sure they aren’t worse. Please.
I guess it was fortunate for Bush that this was a radio address. That way, he didn’t have to worry about trying to keep a straight face.