So how does the US economy stack up?
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Japan, 2004, 2.9 percent
- France, 2004, 2.1 percent
- Germany, 2004, 1.7 percent.
- Italy, 2004, 1.3 percent
- European Union, 2004 1.3 percent
- United States, 2004: 4.4 percent
Unemployment
- Japan, 4.7 percent
- France, 10.1 percent
- Germany, 11.7 percent
- Italy, 8.6 percent
- European Union, 9.5 percent
- United States Unemployment Rate: 5 percent
It seems to me like the Bush economic plan is working just fine, especially the tax cuts. What were Democrats saying about the Bush economic plan?
Tom Daschle, Dec, 2002
“So all of the economic indicators would point to reasons for serious concern. Their trickle-down economic theories have been a miserable failure, and this is an admission of that miserable failure today. So in addition to changing the players, they’ve got to change the play. And I don’t know that there is any evidence to suggest that they understand that today,”
Terry McAullife, Aug. 2001
“We believe this is a defining moment for President Bush. The bills for Bush’s irresponsible fiscal policies are coming due. We are determined to take every measure to ensure that the American people know what is at stake in the upcoming budget battle.”
John Edwards, Aug, 2004
“There is nothing compassionate about leaving millions of hardworking families behind, and there is nothing conservative about a fiscal policy that turns record surpluses into record deficits by combining an ill-planned war with reckless tax cuts for the wealthy,” Edwards said. “Will we next hear that his economic plan was a catastrophic success?”
Joe Lieberman, May 2002
“His economic plan could fit on the back of a shampoo bottle: ‘Cut taxes, increase spending, borrow, repeat. If he keeps repeating that plan, he will surely endanger Social Security benefits and slow our economy to a halt, just when we need the most economic strength we can muster to fight and win the war on terrorism.”
Ted Kennedy, January, 2002
“The doubts that many of us had before the nation was attacked about the affordability of those tax cuts have become certainties in the wake of September 11,” Kennedy said in a speech at the National Press Club. “Future additional tax breaks for the wealthy do not deserve a higher priority than strengthening education or covering prescription drugs under Medicare or protecting Social Security or meeting other urgent national priorities,” Kennedy said.
Jon Corzine, Jan. 2003
“In the most basic analysis, I don’t see how this plan drives economic growth now-when we need it.”
Charles Rangel, May 2003
“You say that this tax bill will create jobs. Why don�??t we pull the record and find what you said last time you came with a trillion dollar tax bill and find out where the jobs are that you promised then? We know that there is a philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans. We believe that the people should be served and not just our investor class. Is it a class warfare? You bet your life! And you have declared it against the working people!”