Over all, Mr. Bush will be lucky to leave office with a net gain of five million jobs, far short of the number needed to keep up with population growth. For comparison, Bill Clinton presided over an economy that added 22 million jobs.
For political purposes, there are better comparisons to make. If you are going to cite the 22 million net jobs created during Clinton's presidency you should also note that this is about the same number of jobs created under Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr... COMBINED.
That's right. In terms of job creation, 8 years of Clinton nearly equalled 8 years of Reagan plus 4 years of Bush plus 8 years of more Bush. I predicted that "Dubya's economy will create fewer net jobs in eight years than Carter did in four". That's the comparison to use. If Bush ends up with 5 million net jobs over eight years, that will be half the number of jobs created during Jimmy Carter's four year term. People need to know these things.
Net Job creation and Stock Market performance are far superior during Democratic Presidencies. That's just a fact, jack.
Again, it's your money.
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Net Jobs Created (* = 2 term president):
Clinton*: 22.75 million
Reagan*: 16.1 million
Carter: 10.33 million
Bush "43"*: 5 million (projected total)
Bush "41": 2.6 million
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Since 1901 the Dow Jones industrial average has gained
6.4%/year during Republican presidencies
versus
9.1%/year during Democratic presidencies
===
Update: Atrios has related, but snarkier, thoughts.
Labels: Big Dog, Bush, Dems, Dismal Science, GOP
