Economy

	AFL-CIO: An Economy that Works for All
	Two Guys on Bush
	AUFC: McBush on the Economy – The Same Old Thing
	CAP: The US Economy – How do you think it’s doing?
	AUFC: The “Hope Now” Hotline

"I know you believe, and I firmly believe, that those tax cuts were part of that engine for that economic vitality. And the economy is not doing as well as we'd like to do -- like it to do today, but there's no question that the tax cuts provided economic vitality."

- President Bush at the Executive Office Building, 6/2/08

President Bush and his conservative allies in Congress have laid waste to an economy that in the late 1990s had the U.S. on a path to long-term growth, budget surpluses, and broadly shaped prosperity.

President George W. Bush has the second-to-worst economic growth record of any president since 1960 (his father has the worst). At the same time, our foreign indebtedness will soar to $1.5 trillion by the end of his term in office.

The Bush Administration’s solution to economic problems has always been tax cuts that favor the very richest Americans. This adherence to trickle-down, Laissez-faire economics has resulted in massive income and wage disparities. CEO salaries are booming, but regular Americans are working longer hours and going further into debt to pay the rising costs of health care, gas, housing and food.

The national unemployment rate reached 5.5% in May 2008 – with unemployment rising faster among women than men. Women’s earnings are also falling at a faster rate than men’s as well.

A report released by the Senate HELP Committee in April stated:

The percentage of Americans saying they worry ʺa great dealʺ about the economy has soared by more than 20 points over the past year, from 39% to 60%. Even more Americans—85 percent—think the economy is getting worse.

Even after the undeniable burst of the housing bubble, President Bush refuses to say that our economy has entered a recession – and continues to believe that tax cuts for the rich will dig us out of the hole his administration put us in.