Infuriated by Growth Report, Democrat Candidates Try to Talk Down Economy

Infuriated by Growth Report, Democrat Candidates Try to Talk Down Economy

Chuck Noe, NewsMax.com
Friday, Oct. 31, 2003

Anyone who saw yesterday's great news of the booming economy, followed by economists' predictions of President Bush's re-election, knew what would come next: the Democrat White House wannabes bitching and moaning and trying to talk down the economy.

And that's just what happened. Hear them roar:

Sen. John Edwards issued this statement even before the remarkable 7.2 percent annual growth rate was announced: "The Bush administration has dug a hole so deep and so wide that it's going to take a lot more than one quarter to get back on solid ground."

Howard Dean: "President Bush has compiled the worst economic record since the Great Depression, and it is going to take a lot more than one quarter of growth to clean it up. The real measure of a strong economy is when average Americans see real benefits and the people who lost their jobs under President Bush are working again."

Rep. Dick Gephardt's spokesman Steve Murphy: "Unemployment is not down a bit. Corporate profits are up while jobs are lost because of poor competition."

Wesley Clark's spokesman Steve Bouchard: "This is still a jobless recovery. Three million are jobless. Fiscal mismanagement is the hallmark of this administration."

Sen. Joe Lieberman's spokesman Kristen Carvell: "Obviously it's good news, but it does not change the fact that the president has turned Main Street into a one-way street going in the wrong direction."

Al Sharpton: "It's recovering only for the top income bracket and major corporations."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich attacked what he called Bush's "failed economic policies."

Sen. John Kerry, campaigning Thursday in Davenport, Iowa: "Roll back the high-end tax cuts of the Bush administration."

The most rational-sounding of the lot: long shot Carol Mosely Braun, who said: "Everyone should applaud and must applaud the recent upticks in the economy. However, it still leaves us with huge budget deficits which will be a huge drag on the economy."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who says attempts to nab illegal aliens are "terroristic" but who at least has enough sense not to be in the race: Bush has "the worst record on job creation since Herbert Hoover. Mr. President, where are the jobs?"

Fellow non-candidate Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader: "I think every single American is far more interested in J-O-B than G-N-P [sic]. When you look at the fact that, in the last quarter, we've still lost 40,000 jobs, I don't think they understand any growth in percentages."

'Bad News Is Good News for Democrats'

A surprisingly candid story Thursday in the pro-Democrat New York Times was headlined, "The Bad News Is Good News for Democrats."

The article, focusing on a Democrat conference hoping to cash in on Iraq, quoted Bill Clinton's national security adviser Sandy Berger as saying: "The bad news is, we're headed in the wrong direction. The worse news is we can't afford it."

The Times wrote: "So why, then, was there a smile on Mr. Berger's jowly face? Why was John Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff, standing in the wings and shouting 'Tremendous!' into a cellphone?"

What's next? Will the Democrats pray for the body bags to start piling up?

Reality Check

In contrast to the pro-tax Democrats' complaints, economists quoted by the Associated Press, which is hardly pro-Republican, said the president's tax relief helped fuel the impressive 7.2 percent growth rate, which is better than anything Bill Clinton saw even during the frenzied and unstable days of the Internet and high-tech bubble.

Will the Democrats' attempt to talk down the economy succeed, or instead backfire on them? Some think the latter.

"The new economic numbers are further proof that the Democratic candidates' calls for massive tax increases would only reverse the upward trend," said Jayne Millrick, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

"There's no question that [the GDP number] is a big political embarrassment for the Democratic presidential candidates - especially Dean," said Stephen Moore, president of Club for Growth, an organization that promotes tax relief.

"It's also evidence that the Mondale-era Democratic proposals to raise taxes would have the opposite effect on the economy right now, would slow growth and would be devastating to Americans who are looking for work and would be devastating for the economy," said Christine Iverson of Republican National Committee.

The Christian Science Monitor reported today that "there's no way that the best quarterly GDP numbers since Ronald Reagan's presidency aren't good news for the White House."

The Bush administration issued a statement saying: "We cannot expect economic growth numbers like this every quarter. Yet by continuing a pro-growth agenda, we will sustain growth and job creation in this country. We're on the right track, but we've got work to do."

As the president told factory workers Thursday in Columbus, Ohio: "We've got to get after it. And that's my message to the United States Congress: Resolve your differences. Understand that if you're interested in people finding a job, we need an energy policy. That's why I'm here. I want these people working."

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