Constantine wrote:
Can you imagine if Bush had the record of:
1. highest debt ever,
2. highest deficits ever,
3. first president in history to have the USA credit downgraded,
4. highest poverty increase,
5. slow economy growth (low GDP),
6. weakest dollar,
7. soaring gas prices,
8. home values most devalued,
9. Over 9% unemployment,
10. real high underemployment, etc ...
Bush does have that record dumb ass.
1. highest debt ever - Bush had the highest debt ever when he was President.
National Debt
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/repo ... histo5.htm
2. highest deficits ever - Bush set the record for deficits with his last budget. Bush's last budget was FY 2009. Spending for FY 2009 was 3.5177 trillion. The deficit was 1.4127 trillion. Deficits in 2010 and 2011 were about 1.2 trillion.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/yea ... 1n#usgs302
3. first president in history to have the USA credit downgraded - S&P downgraded the debt because Republicans refuse to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.
Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012,remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.
4. highest poverty increase - Poverty rate increased more under Bush than under Obama.
5. slow economy growth (low GDP) - Economic growth in 2010 was stronger than 6 of 8 years under Bush.
Here is real GDP growth from 2001 to 2010:
2001 1.1
2002 1.8
2003 2.5
2004 3.5
2005 3.1
2006 2.7
2007 1.9
2008 -0.3
2009 -3.5
2010 3.0
6. weakest dollar - The dollar is not the weakest it has been. The dollar crashed under Bush. The dollar was 129.6843 in Feb 2002 and crashed to 95.9193 in March 2008. Now the dollar is over 100.
7. soaring gas prices - You obviously are not old enough to drive. Gas prices hit 4.20 a gallon in November 2008. Now gas is under 3.50. When Bush became President, gas was 1.50 a gallon.
8. home values most devalued - Home prices fell 30% during Bush's last 2 years. They have barely fallen under Obama.
9. Over 9% unemployment - Bush is the first president in history to serve 8 years without expanding private sector employment. For every 1000 jobs added to the private sector, 1006 were lost. He has the worst job record of any president including Obama. During Bush's first 3 years, the private sector lost 3 million jobs. In contrast during Obama's first 3 years, the private sector lost 1 million.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000001
Bush's first 3 years:
Jan 2001 = 111.634 million private sector jobs
Jan 2004108.882 million private sector jobs
Obama's first 3 years:
Jan 2009 = 110.981 million private sector jobs
Dec 2011 = 109.928 million private sector jobs
Bush's private sector job record:
Jan 2001 = 111.634 million private sector jobs
Jan 2009 = 110.981 million private sector jobs
653,000 private jobs lost
10. real high underemployment, etc - unemployment rose for the first 2.5 years of the Bush presidency. Unemployment only rose for the first 10 months under Obama
