Friday, February 06, 2004

The Bush Numbers

Proving that there's no statute of limitations when it comes to blaming your predecessor, particularly when your predecessor is the scourge of civilization, the Clenis, the Bushies continue to blame this on him and on September 11.

Let's assume they're right for a moment. But, if so, why is it that they've been oddly unaware of just how dastardly the Clenis is and how large the economic impacts of 9/11 were?

Paul Krugman reminded us recently that months after September 11 (and a year after the departure of the dastardly Clenis), the Bush administration's revenue projections, which incorporate assumptions about economic growth, had us with a $14 billion dollar deficit for this year, which I believe is a bit below the actual number.

Last June, long after September 11 and the departure of the dastardly Clenis, the administration predicted that, following their tax cuts, the economy would gain an average of 305,000 jobs per month beginning in July. Since July, the economy has gained a grand total of 296,000, which means we're still 1,846,000 behind their prediction.