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A Bush spokesman raises eyebrows by suggesting that the current economic surge is more robust than the surge of the late '90's Allow me to preface this post by saying that presidents always get way too much credit and blame for the state of the economy. Having said that, it's interesting to compare the economic conditions of the Bush presidency to the Clinton presidency. Bush Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told the Examiner that "This is a much stronger expansion in a lot of ways. It's much deeper and more measured."

Gas prices are down, the stock market is at a record high and 60 percent of Americans say the economy is in good shape. So why are Republicans in so much trouble? I've been asked this in the past week by several (mostly rich) Democrats and Republicans, so I picked the brains of a number of pollsters. Kathy Frankovic, director of surveys for CBS News, pointed to the finding in the CBS News/New York Times poll conducted Oct. 5 to 8, which said that despite the increase in the number of people saying the economy was in good shape, they...

When does optimism — the Bush campaign's favorite word these days — become an inability to face facts? On Friday, President Bush insisted that a seriously disappointing jobs report, which fell far short of the pre-announcement hype, was good news: "We're witnessing steady growth, steady growth. And that's important. We don't need boom-or-bust-type growth." But Mr. Bush has already presided over a bust. For the first time since 1932, employment is lower in the summer of a presidential election year than it was on the previous Inauguration Day. Americans badly need a boom to make up the lost ground. And...

<p>LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- President Bush's ratings have fallen among Michigan voters in the past two months, as worries about the economy and the war in Iraq raise doubts about his role as the country's leader.</p> <p>Thirty-seven percent of the 600 likely voters polled Sunday through Wednesday by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA said the country is going in the right direction, while 53 percent say it's on the wrong track and 10 percent were undecided.</p>

Download in PDF format     Get free software to read and download PDF files. For Immediate Attention                                                             January 22, 2004   Manufacturing Employment Decline Began Before 2001 -- Consecutive Monthly Factory Job Declines Began in 2000 --    WASHINGTON, D.C. - Virtually all of the net payroll job loss in recent years is accounted for by the manufacturing sector, and this decline in factory jobs began before the current Administration took office, Vice Chairman Jim Saxton said today. Opponents of the Administration have repeatedly claimed that its policies have caused the decline in manufacturing employment, but fail to explain how this...

<p>Unofficial arbiter of recession dating considers extending latest recession, report says.</p> <p>The committee of economists that sets the dates of U.S. recessions and expansions is considering moving the starting point of the latest recession to as early as November 2000 -- which, if true, could provide some political cover for President Bush.</p>

The longest economic expansion in U.S. history faltered so much in the summer of 2000 that business output actually contracted for one quarter, the government said Wednesday in releasing a comprehensive revision of the gross domestic product. BASED ON NEW DATA, the Commerce Department said that the GDP — the country’s total output of goods and services — shrank by 0.5 percent at an annual rate in the July-September quarter of 2000. Previously, the government had said GDP was rising at a weak annual rate of 0.6 percent during that quarter. The GDP returned to positive territory in the October-December...

Revisions: Economy Shrank Pre-Recession Wednesday December 10, 8:38 am ET By Andrea Hopkins WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter of 2000, the government said on Wednesday in revisions to official figures that showed America was on the brink of recession months earlier than previously thought. The sweeping changes by the Commerce Department also downgraded the expansion that followed the 2001 slump, albeit only slightly. However, the revisions were not applied to third-quarter 2003 data -- leaving the most recent measure of growth unchanged at a swift annual clip of 8.2 percent. The next reading of...

Government Revises Economic History, Finding Negative GDP Quarter in 2000 By Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The longest economic expansion in U.S. history faltered so much in the summer of 2000 that business output actually contracted for one quarter, the government said Wednesday in releasing a comprehensive revision of the gross domestic product. Based on new data, the Commerce Department said that the GDP - the country's total output of goods and services - shrank by 0.5 percent at an annual rate in the July-September quarter of 2000. Previously, the government had said GDP was rising at...

Revisions: Economy Shrank Pre-Recession Wednesday December 10, 8:38 am ET By Andrea Hopkins WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter of 2000, the government said on Wednesday in revisions to official figures that showed America was on the brink of recession months earlier than previously thought. ADVERTISEMENT The sweeping changes by the Commerce Department also downgraded the expansion that followed the 2001 slump, albeit only slightly. However, the revisions were not applied to third-quarter 2003 data -- leaving the most recent measure of growth unchanged at a swift annual clip of 8.2 percent. The next reading...

President Bush flew today to Ohio, an all-important state for his re-election hopes, to campaign for his package of tax cuts and to put pressure on a rebellious fellow Republican. "The debate over whether we ought to have tax relief is over," the president told an audience in Canton. "That's positive. Now we're talking about how big the package ought to be and what it ought to look like." Advertisement Of course, Mr. Bush said, he has some ideas about the size of the tax cuts. "The package ought to be at least $550 billion in size over a 10-year...