THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 224, October 25, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID, & IT'S GOOD
By Alan Caruba
THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN, THE POLITICAL PROPAGANDA BEING DISSEMINATED BY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS, &
THE TRUE STATE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY -- REJECTION OF JOHN KERRY'S STATIST, HIGH-TAX ECONOMIC PLAN,
ADHERENCE TO FREE ENTERPRISE CAPITALISM, & REELECTION OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH ESSENTIAL TO CONTINUING
ECONOMIC GROWTH & PROSPERITY
FULL STORY:
Lacking any real issues to run on, the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate have been telling anyone who will listen that the
United States is staring a new depression in the eye. They cite the rising per barrel cost of oil, rising health care costs, and the “failure”
of the Bush administration to create jobs, despite the fact that the government doesn’t create jobs; private industry and businesses,
large and small, do that.
If you believed the Democrats, you would have to conclude the economy is a mess, but it is not. By June of this year, all the economic
indicators pointed to a very healthy economy and one that was growing. Writing that month, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief
of U.S. News and World Report, was almost euphoric. “New jobs are being generated in large numbers, income is growing at
twice the rate of last year, and the acceleration is such that we will probably see 5 percent growth in the gross domestic product.” The
numbers by June included the fact that 61 percent of private industries surveyed had added workers, “the highest in four years.”
Add to that the fact that companies “are laying out more and more money on capital equipment to meet orders growing at double-digit
rates.” Zuckerman noted that “corporate profits have surged over 25 percent this year, on top of last year, when they exceeded $1
trillion for the first time ever,” adding that “sales have improved in 58 of the 60 scoreboard industries, with the first back-to-back
quarters of double-digit revenue growth in three years.”
Americans, by June, were enjoying household wealth that “passed the $45 trillion mark, a new peak, surpassing the previous high of
early 2000.”
No doubt much will be made of the working poor in America, pitting them against “the rich”, but Robert Rector, a senior research fellow
at the Heritage Foundation, recently reported that “Overall, the typical American defined (by the Census Bureau) as poor has a car, air
conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV
reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He can obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and not overcrowded. By his own
report, his family isn’t hungry, and he had enough money in the last year (2003) to meet his family’s essential needs.” What is
considered “poor” in America is considered opulent by most of the world.
In his book, Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality, by Olaf Gersemann, a German reporter who came to
America to check the facts of the American economic model, says:
“Over the last 25 years the U.S. economy has enjoyed an average real growth of 2.9 percent.
That’s 55 percent more than the German economy mustered, 48 percent more than in France,
and 39 percent more than in the European Union as a whole.”
Much has been made of unemployment levels, but Gerseman points out that, “At the height of the past economic boom, in April,
2000, the U.S. unemployment rate sank to a record low of 3.8 percent.” Gerseman notes:
“During the last recession, unemployment rose again. In the summer of 2003, it reached over
6 percent. That was the highest level for the United States since 1994. For Germany, Italy,
and France, that level would have been the lowest since 1991, 1980, and in 1979, respectively."
The recession, which began in March, 2001, ended eight months later in November, making it the mildest as well as the shortest in the
last 30 years.
The 2003 edition of the Economic Freedom of the World Report ranked the United States third behind the city-states of Hong
Kong and Singapore, noted Gerseman, who put things in perspective when it comes to labor market regulations. He cited the fact that
Germany ranked 80th. among the 80 countries examined. Italy came in 76th. and France was 4lst. “Cowboy capitalism” works. The
Socialism that controls the economies of Europe does not.
Prior to September 11, 2001, President Bush, in office just nine months, was concentrating on getting the economy moving. On
September 12, his focus shifted to the task of protecting America from its enemies in the Islamic Jihad. Even with that burden and the
nearly one trillion dollars the attack sucked out of the economy, by this year, the U.S.A. was on track to enjoy a healthy, growing
economy. Probably no other nation on earth could have survived such a devastating attack.
As Washington Times columnist, Donald Lambro, pointed out on Ocober 24:
“This is an economy fully in recovery…This economy added a net 1.8 million jobs in the last 12
months. Its low 5.4 percent unemployment rate is significantly lower than the 5.8 percent average
of the 1990s. The annualized quarterly economic growth rates of the past year are much stronger
than the 3.3 percent average growth rates of the 1970s, 80s or 90s.”
Senator John F. Kerry keeps saying: “I have a plan.” But even a kindergartner could look at his economic plan and know that it
would require dramatically raising taxes on everyone and everything to accommodate the Socialist or Statist planning that would
put the government in charge of the health system and impose other measures that would reverse all the gains made since 2001.
The President may not be the most articulate debater, but he has demonstrated that he has been an effective leader in a time of war.
It is a war aimed in part at our economy and it has failed. It has failed because it was reversed by military action and not treated as
a matter for the courts or the United Nations. It was not seen as “a nuisance” to be tolerated.
The current deficits are in part due to fighting that war and, as we continue to win it, those deficits will be replaced by an even
healthier growth rate and America’s “cowboy capitalism” will continue to demonstrate why we need to stick with the “cowboy”
in the White House.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Government & the Economy
American Politics & Political Competition
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 28 West Third Street, Apartment 1321, South Orange, New Jersey, 07079.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VI, 2004
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy