MEMORANDUM
FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT
Senator Kerry has repeatedly tried to talk down a growing economy by focusing only on the most pessimistic of statistics and ignoring the remarkable recovery of an economy that experienced the shocks of the stock bubble burst, recession, terrorist attacks, and corporate scandals. The irony is that the same statistics Kerry campaigned on in 1996 are the same he rails against in 2004. As BusinessWeek recently reported, "On many of the key variables that voters care about, the economy looks uncannily like it did in the summer of 1996, a year when the incumbent was reelected." (Source: Michael Mandel, "The Economy: Advantage Bush?," BusinessWeek, Sept. 6. 2004)
Sources:
- Employment and Job Growth: www.bls.gov
- Unemployment: www.bls.gov
- Taxes and Income: "America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day," Tax Foundation, 4/04; Real disposable income, per capita, Bureau of Economic Analysis; Real Earnings in July 2004," BLS, 7/16/04; Productivity & Costs," BLS, 6/3/04; "Employment Cost Index – March 2004," BLS, 4/29/04;
- Economy: Richard Rahn, "Tallying Presidential Economic Success," Washington Times, 6/18/2004; Equity Ownership in America, SIA and Investment Company Institute, 2002; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 5/21/2004; U.S. Census Bureau, "Statistical Abstract of the United States," 1996 and 2003; BLS
- Homeownership: www.census.gov; www.hud.gov; National Realtors Association
- Quality of Life: "Trends in Student Aid," College Board, 2003; National Restaurant Association; Cruise Line International Association; "The 'personalities' of cruise ships," MSNBC, 12/12/2003; Giving USA 1996, 2003