The BS Pertaining To The American Economy Needs To Stop!

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U.S. Budget Deficit vs. GDP Under Bush And Obama

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uploaded by Rory Cripps

I am sick and tired of all the BS re the U.S. economy being floated around out there, as well as all the finger pointing and how it can be fixed.  I've been listening to defacto Republican spokemen such as Limbaugh, et al lately, and I cringe at all the misinformation which they're spewing.

 Indeed I've been fact-checking some of Limbaugh's economic claims and the facts don't correspond with what he's telling his audience. For example: The other day LImbaugh told his audience that the Bush tax cuts created millions of new jobs and that the economy was essentially purring along because of it and he excoriated (as usual) Obama for the high budget deficit. Well I'm no fan of Obama, however the facts are that the budget deficit rose exponentially under Bush. In fact when Bush left office the deficit was 11 percent of GDP (since 1980, the deficit averaged about 3.5 percent of GDP) and under Obama it only went up one percent to 12 percent and then it went back down to 11 percent.

 The Great Recession began in December 2007, a year before Bush left office in January 2009. During Bush's last year in office, the stock market lost over 50 percent of its value and in effect, American citizens who had their money invested in 401Ks, IRAs, pensions, annuities, etc. lost over 50 percent of their net financial worth. And on top of that, any equity that they had in their homes tanked. In other words, under Bush, millions of Americans saw their combined financial net worth decrease anywhere from 50 to 75 percent. Indeed, just within a years time, every dollar they had invested circa October 2007 was worth only about 50 to 25 cents in January 2009 when Bush left office.

 Virtually all of the meltdown gained steam and ultimately came to the bursting point throughout the eight years that Bush was in office. There's only so much that a president can do to affect the economy and I'm not blaming Bush for the mess. However, for the Republicans to make all the claims that they've made recently, while in campaign mode, about the economy and all their finger-pointing is preposterous given the fact that they had just as much of a hand in messing the economy up as did the Democrats.

 Both political parties are a lost cause when it comes to fixing the economy. Neither one of them have any solutions to the problem. And there is no historical evidence to back up the claim that either of the two parties have the economic answers. 

 Why Americans continue to believe anything that the politicians, talk show hosts, and pundits, tell them  is beyond me. Perhaps it's because Americans are trapped in their own ideological mindset and there's no escape. They continuously fall prey to political myths and lie after lie.