Bush economy: "compared to Western Europe or Japan, we're kicking tail"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5665183/

The economy has 1.1 million fewer jobs than the day Bush took office, making it more than likely he will join Herbert Hoover as the second president to see the nation suffer a net job loss on his watch. The economy is 7 million jobs short of the level the White House had predicted when trying to sell the tax cuts. And a 10-year budget outlook that in 2001 projected $5.6 trillion in surpluses now foresees $2.7 trillion in deficits, an unprecedented fiscal swing.

Republican strategists say Bush is so closely associated with the tax cuts that he has no choice but to defend them. Rather than acknowledging failure, Bush aides said, they plan to keep making the case that the president's leadership and the trio of tax cuts kept the recession of 2001 shallow and short, avoiding a double-dip recession and helped the nation recover from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the corporate accounting scandals of 2002.

But most conservatives say that the Bush experience has not discredited the concept of tax cuts. Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow in political economy at the Heritage Foundation, said Bush's cuts "deserve substantial credit for America's economy outperforming our major trading partners in the rest of the world. We may not be doing great compared to some theoretical ideal," Mitchell said. "But compared to Western Europe or Japan, we're kicking tail."

[WMliberal]

1. hmm, not entirely true...

Bush is, not surprisingly, oversimplifying the European economy. Ireland is booming, while Spain is floundering. Maybe "western Europe" is stagnant, but that's like saying the U.S. is booming now (which he is, and it happens to be ANOTHER gross oversimplification).

[UdoKier]

2. The average working person in W. Europe or Japan...

Has full, inexpensive health care. In Europe, they have twice as much vacation time, better pay and benefits. In Japan, most salaried employees still get a huge year-end bonus.

Things are great for the oligarchy here, sure. Both Japan and w. Europe have much more egalitarian societies, without the super-rich cloistering themseslves away in gated enclaves.

These people's measures of prosperity generally have NOTHING to do with the quality of life of the average person. They really couldn't give a crap.

[Union Thug]

4. and being unemployed in Europe...

...is much kinder and gentler than here in the states.

[WMliberal]

3. ok, got my objective opinion out, now it's time for namecalling.

* is a friggin idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!