Job Losses at Level of Great Depression Contradict President Bush's Wishful Predictions
Instead of creating 510,000 jobs in 2003, as President Bush predicted, the Republican-led economy has suffered a net loss of 473,000 jobs so far this year.
The Timken Company, an Ohio-based steel and bearings manufacturer where the President launched his Jobs and Growth package in April, embarrassed the Administration two weeks ago with an announcement it will cut 900 jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that mass layoffs were the cause of 134,000 jobs lost in August. August marked the seven consecutive month of job losses, a cold dose of reality in the face of the President's wishful rhetoric.
The President sold his tax package last spring as a mechanism to create jobs, saying, "[T]he best way to create demand for goods and services is to let people have more of their own money . . . that's why tax relief is important in the year 2003 . . . [T]hat's what the whole purpose of the package is, to create the conditions for job growth."
His promises haven't borne out, but the President has tried to ignore the reality, claiming most recently two weeks ago in Michigan, "I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better." At the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "…the tax-cut package that we've passed now three times does offer very bright prospects for the future."
So far, however, economic growth has not translated into jobs. In the past 22 months just over one million Americans have lost their job. Added to the 1.78 million lost jobs during the seven-month recession, the period represents the largest sustained loss of jobs since the Great Depression.
Jeez...kinda makes you glad he didn't promise to be the edumacation President, doesn't it?? Hmm...lessee, he can't handle foreign affairs (e.g.- Iraq), he's bollixed any meaningful education reform (something about leaving no children behind), his domestic policy could have been put together by a group of 4-year-olds in a sandbox (his tax cut for his rich friends), and he's running for re-election? I guess mediocrity really IS it's own reward.
