The latest employment figures, released this morning, showed that the economy added about 157,000 jobs in December. It’s short of economists’ projections for the month and a total that barely keeps up with population growth.
Which leads me to my monthly look at how well Bush’s promises of last year kept up with reality. The president insisted that the economy would create 300,000 jobs a month, every month, starting in July 2003 and ending in December 2004, if Congress passed his third tax cut plan. Lawmakers, not surprisingly, obliged. How’d Bush do in keeping his promise? Not very well.
In the 18 months spanning July 2003 to December 2004, job growth fell short of Bush’s guarantees 15 times, including six of the last seven months.
The White House will point out that 2004’s job picture was stronger than the first three years of Bush’s presidency. This is, to be sure, true. On the other hand, Bush promised that his policy would create 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004 — and he came several million jobs short. What’s worse, the Bush gang, far from having an explanation for failure, is revelling in their “success.”