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John Adams Blog

The blog of The Antient and Honourable John Adams Society, Minnesota's Conservative Debating Society www.johnadamssociety.org

Friday, January 07, 2005

GWB's First Term Jobs Performance

From ABCNews.com's The Note today:

The Labor Department reported this morning that the economy added 157,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate remains at 5.4 percent. All told, reports ABC News' Daniel Arnall the economy added nearly 2.1 million jobs last year — the best for growth since 1999. But President Bush's first term still shows a net job loss of 210,000.

A few things struck me when I read this

  • WOW!. I'm serious. WOW! After dealing with a stock market in the doledrums, the aftermath of corporate scandals, a recession and the impact on the economy of the 9/11 attacks, the economy only lost 210,000 jobs? That is truly amazing performance, and one that we should cheer.
  • Where is all the hang-wringing from the Democrats about how horrible the economy is now that the election is over? If the economy was truly as bad as they said it was and people everywhere were hurting as they claimed, why did their constant drumbeat cease the moment John Kerry conceded? I think we all know the answer to that one....
  • In a parallel universe where John Kerry won the election (ok, so it's probably a bad universe to be in, but stay with me here), what are the Democrats and Main-Stream Media saying about the November and December jobs reports? If you listen carefully, you can almost hear through the wormhole statements like "The economy and job creation surged after the election of John F. Kerry, as confidence in the new administration led to much higher than expected growth rates, and as plans for our pullout from Iraq and pending negotiation with Osama Bin Laden created a sense of optimism for the future".

The economy has been heating up for some time now. How great it is for GWB to be re-elected so that he can get the credit for the sound tax policies that were implemented in his first term.