The Carpetbagger Report, August 8, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, actor/senator/lobbyist Fred Thompson, a leading GOP presidential contender despite not having launched a campaign, lost his campaign manager, research director, and spokesperson in the course of a couple of days.
Apparently, he fired his economic advisor, too. In his latest column, Thompson argues that Bush’s economic policies are superior to those of Bill Clinton’s.
Economist Larry Kudlow calls today’s American economy, “the greatest story never told.” If you’re generally predisposed to not support tax cuts and economic growth, you’re probably satisfied that the U.S. economy isn’t bragged on more. But you’d also be out of step with Americans [sic] traditional optimism, and out of step with reality, too…
Since the spring of 2003, the economy has had average growth of over 3%, 8.2 million jobs have been created, and the inflation rate has stayed low. The current unemployment rate, 4.6%, is a full percentage point below what it averaged during the 1990s, and there have been 47 consecutive months (almost four years) of job growth. In the last three years, workers’ salaries have risen by $1.2 trillion, or $8,000 per worker, and consumer confidence recently reached its highest level in almost six years.
People have pointed out that journalists were trumpeting economic statistics during the Clinton administration that were not as good as those we have now, hence the “greatest story never told.” I think they want to play down how well we’ve done with lower tax rates, because it interferes with the ability of their friends in Congress who believe that a virtuous society is one that divides the economic pie, taking more out of taxpayer pockets and letting government do more with those dollars. To them, growing the pie means taxing the people more, which then gives the government more money to transfer to others. But conservatives know better.
Wow. It would be surprising enough for a presidential candidate to say such nonsense out loud, but to put it in print is rather remarkable. Thompson has already developed something of a reputation for having a limited intellect, but writing such tripe is only going to make matters worse.
Rather than calling what Cudlow writes ‘tripe’ how about a meaningful response? Your smearing shows no meaningful intelligence being applied.
Even Hillary Clinton can say something’s ‘tripe.’
I expect better of you.
Grimgold
Comment by grimgold — August 10, 2007 @ 7:53 pm