By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty, (www.bannerofliberty.com)
December 3, 2003
Six months ago I wrote an article about the economy, using as the title of the article a quote from President Bush, “I believe in the future of this economy.” I’ve kept that article up on my home page as a reminder to the doomsayers who seem, these days, to be congregating in the Democratic party, that there was SOMEONE who actually still believes in the resiliency of American capitalism.
Six weeks before President Bush said “I believe in the future of this economy,” the Dow-Jones had dropped to 7,397.31. Since he made that statement, stock market has risen about 2500 points and the GDP, the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States, increased at an annual rate of 8.2 percent in the third quarter of 2003, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
This is not only quite impressive, it is really astonishing, especially in light of a determined media campaign to convince people the economy was declining because a Republican President was elected.
In May of this year, when President Bush signed the Jobs and Growth Act cutting taxes for the third time in two years he said,
“I believe in this economy.”
I wrote at the time,
“Fifty senators voted for the bill and fifty senators voted against the bill, with Vice-President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote. Forty-eight Republican senators and two Democrats, Zell Miller of Georgia and Nelson of Nebraska apparently also believe in this economy. Forty-eight Democrat senators and three Republicans, John McCain of Arizona, Olympia Snowe of Maine and John Chaffee of Rhode Island appear to be still devoted to a more socialist approach to taxing and spending.“The socialist view of priming the economy is more government spending to create more government jobs by re-distributing the wealth of the general public. In spite of the economic problems experienced by nations that have adopted socialism, incredibly, we appear to still have half of the U.S. Senate dedicated to the notion that socialism is good and allowing people to solve some of their own problems with their own money is bad.”
Few Democrats and few editorial writers in America agreed with the president at the time. In fact, as recently as July 31, 2003 the Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee released a “Fact Sheet” entitled “The Bush Recession” that claimed.
“Under the Bush administration, we are seeing the slowest economic growth in any administration in 50 years.” The Democrats warned, only 4 months ago,“President Bush is on tract to have the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover.”
And what had George W. Bush done to cause this horrendous economic problem? He cut taxes, that’s what he did. The Democrats blamed the Bush tax cuts the mild recession that began in the year 2000, but of course, the media didn’t mention that. It reported and headlined, it seemed, every negative comment made by any Democrat.
I never did believe we were in much of a recession. Having lived through the 1930s depression as a child, along with the numerous ups and downs in the economy over the years I thought the whole story was greatly overblown. Compared with an unemployment rate back in the good old days before World War II, but after the Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been in office for eight years, how does the Bush economy look? In 1940 there were 8.1 million unemployed in a population of 131 million, bringing down from the unemployment figure of 25% during the 1930s, to about 18% unemployment in 1939. And, of course, in 1940 there were very few 2-income households.
To put the numbers in perspective, the Department of Labor reported last month that the unemployment rate, was 5.6 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, was 8.8 million, in a U.S. population of 280 million people.
And just how did the “Anybody but Bush crowd report that?” The in the “Bush Recession,” the headlines read, “American workers today are facing the biggest job crisis in the United States since the Great Depression!” The media and the unions conveniently forget to mention the 150 million more people living in the United States in 2003 than were living here in 1940.
Now it ought to be obvious to everyone, with an 8.2% rise in the GDP, that the Bush economic policies have worked to reverse the downtown that had already taken place in 2000 and the even sharper downturn that occurred after Osama bin Laden’s boys took out the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.
However, to his credit, when President Bush talked about the economy on Monday at a plant in Michigan, he didn’t take credit for single-handedly improving the economy, as did Bill Clinton and the Democrats. He said,
"When we talk about job creation and job growth, it's important to understand, we have come through a lot, which speaks really to the greatness of America, doesn't it? It speaks to the greatness of the entrepreneurial spirit, to the high productivity of the American work force. We're the best workers in the world. I think it speaks a little bit, as well, to the policies we put forth. I want to thank the members of the United States Congress who are here from the great state of Michigan.“…when people have more money in their pocket, it means they're going to demand an additional good or a service. … And when that happens in our economy, somebody will produce it. And when somebody produces the good or a service to meet the demand, somebody is more likely to find a job. And so not only did the tax relief help hardworking Americans, with the pressures on their families and education needs, but it also helped the economy.”
I think that is a very accurate analysis. Contrary to what the Democrats have said, America’s economy did not fall apart in 2 months time in 2001 because a Republican was elected to the White House. The fact is, the real health of the economy is based on what people FEEL about it. If they feel good, they buy things. If they are scared, they hide their money. Democrats have tried to maintain their power by scaring people for 70 years.
This time, it appears, it just didn’t work.
In spite of a really well-orchestrated campaign to scare the public into believing that the economy was in dire straits, Americans didn’t quite believe it. Given a few more dollars from the tax cut, they spent it.
To comment: Mary@bannerofliberty.com