"Clinton inherited prosperity; bequeathed recession."

[Kire]

A Record of Recovery
By GEORGE P. SCHULTZ

Published: August 4, 2004

Over the course of last week, we heard a lot from the Democrats about their record of economic achievement. So let's take the advice of a Democrat of yesteryear, Al Smith, the former governor of New York. His trademark phrase was, "Let's look at the record."

These charts show the rate of change in real gross domestic product and in employment from 1990 to last June. The shaded areas show recessions. The vertical lines show when President Bill Clinton took office and when he left. Because the economy has momentum, it's useful to look carefully at the trends in evidence at the time of presidential transitions. When you look at the record, a quick summary is this: President Clinton inherited prosperity; President Clinton bequeathed recession.


more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/opinion/04shultz.html?th

[colonel odis]

1. "there's lies, damned lies, and then there's statistics."

n/t

[Bhaisahab]

2. bartcop will have something to say abt this...

... look out for his page tomorrow...

[Birthmark]

3. Orwell LIVES!

This kind of nonsense is hilarious, imo. This is the same kind of nonsense that Bush is using to try to convince people that the economy is good. Do they honestly think that people don't know when they are or aren't employed? Bwah!!

[flordehinojos]

4. The Bushes are no longer members of a political party. They are a CULT

The Bushes are no longer members of a political party. They are a CULT all their own on whose behalf people are willing to lie, distort facts, spin truths, override the constitution. They really are a malaise that needs to be given some strong antibiotics (as inKerry votes) that will send them back home ASAP.:dem:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. And Bush I was responsible for the budget surplus?

Get real.

[UpInArms]

6. what a crock of shit

more of the up is down spiel - don't believe what you see, believe the lies that are spewing from the spinmeisters' lips.

:puke:

[ixion]

7. hmmm... well, that's not really true

while the dot com bubble would have burst (and was bursting) when Clinton left office, what we've gone through would not have been nearly as dramatic.

As for when Clinton took office... well, the first Bush had turned the economy into shite anyway (that's where "it's the economy, stupid" came from, and 'stupid' was Bush I).

So here is another right wing hack blaming Clinton for Bush's bad leadership.

[realthing]

8. Well...

To be honest things were going down by 1997. Yeah Bush screwed us all cause Gore is a god and everything but economy speaking we got lucky in the 1990's. Too many backers that didn't know what they were backing in the first place. As much as it hurts me to say it the economy is back

[struggle4progress]

9. What evidence can you provide to support your views?

In particular, why do you think "things were going down by 1997"? And what in the world do you mean by "Gore is a god"?

[Manix]

11. ..freeper alert!

[katym]

10. maybe you missed the democratic in democraticunderground.com...

Or maybe you're like the other rethuglicans...your head is so far up your ass you dont even know who Bill Clinton is, besides a scapegoat for everything Bush has done wrong.
I suppose *when* Kerry gets elected, you'll blame our new prosperity on bush???

[mediaman007]

12. Greenspan helped to create the recession by raising the interest rates...

four or five times in 2000. If he didn't have so much integrity, I would say he did it to help Bush*. (sarcasm)

Oh wait! Now the economists are suggesting it wasn't much of a recession at all. Are they flip-flopping?