"The Same Old Failed Policies"

The President has a favorite saying. “The same failed policies of the past eight years that got us here.” He has variations on this. Such as “those that presided over the failed tax cuts of the past eight years”.

Well, I decided to look that up. In January, 2001 George W. Bush took over as President of the United States. In September of that year we were attacked. There were tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

I know that reading numbers is very boring but it must be done to see Obama’s distance from the truth.

The first quarter in 2001, the economy didn’t grow. The quarterly figures for growth were -0.48%. The second quarter was 1.23% growth. The third quarter was -1.39%. That was the quarter that included the September 11 attack. The fourth quarter was 1.58%.

In 2002 the four quarters in order were 2.7% growth, 2.19%, 2.37%, and 0.2%.
In 2003, the year of the second tax cut, the numbers were, 1.2%, 3.4%, 7.4% and 2.6%.
In 2004, it was 2.9%, 3.4%, 3.6%, and 2.5%.
In 2005: 2.9%, 2.6%, 3.8%, and 1.3%
In 2006: 4.8%, 2.6%, 0.7%, and 1.5%
In 2007: 0.04%, 4.78%, 4.75%, and -0.1%
In 2008: 0.8%, 2.8%, 0.5%. Fourth Quarter was a negative number, but not listed.

Look at the growth especially in 2002 following the 2001 tax cuts. Our financial center had been attacked in September 2001 and was shut down for over a week. Then look at the growth in 2003 and 2004 following the tax cuts of 2003.

During those eight years, we had two tax cuts, but we had ZERO spending cuts (much to the dismay of the Conservatives). Still the economy grew. The unemployment rate dropped during those years to 4.5% and maintained that until 2007 when it rose to 4.7%. It didn’t hit 5% until 2008. 5% unemployment is considered full employment. Just in the last six months did the unemployment hit 6% and now 7%.

The lack of spending cuts cost the Republicans the House and Senate in 2006 and the Democrats took over in January 2007.

Numbers don’t lie. So, Mr. President. The facts are presented above, and they include tax cuts, no spending cuts and the economy grew. George Bush inherited a recession and 7 months after taking over, the country suffered our worst attack on our own soil in the heart of our financial center. Yet the economy grew and grew better than it had since Ronald Reagan presided over our the longest period of growth in our history following our last severe recession.

I agree that the past eight years could have been better. Had there been spending cuts at the same time as we had all of this growth during the past eight years, the economy could have been even better. It was great as it was, it could have been unprecedented had Congress been better stewards of the purse strings. More importantly, however, is that the proof is well documented that tax cuts alone do work.

We could stand a little more truthfulness in dealing with this problem in the economy that we have right now rather than the rhetoric we’re getting from this White House. If you tell a lie often enough, people will begin to come around, but then when you look back at the facts from the past, you’ll find that regardless how often you tell the lie, it’s still a lie.

Socialism doesn’t work. It never has and no amount of good intentions will make it work. Now it’s time for the liberal E-mails that I normally get that spit and sputter, but don’t deal with the facts.

Your comments are welcome.

Brett