Speaking of Funny Things

What’s funnier? A cat wearing a lime helmet or this claim: ‘Bush Boom Better than Clinton Economy‘? I see via Mike Jones’ 18 Minute Gap that the charlatans good folks over at Blogs for Bush have a post with that exact title. No really, they do. Just click here and see for yourself. The Blogs for Bush post is based on this NRO article by J. Edward Carter, Chairman of Economists for Bush.

As Mike explains, “Now, I’m not an economist. I don’t even play one on TV. But I understand mathematics, and I’m not an idiot.” It’s amazing how, armed only with math and non-idiocy, Mike can quickly and entirely dismantle Carter’s completely disingenuous claims.

For example, Carter claims — and Blogs for Bush parrots — that “compared with the ‘exceptional’ years of 1993, 1994, and 1995, the first three years of George W. Bush’s presidency featured … lower unemployment.” Carter then shows that in Clinton’s first three years, unemployment was 6.2%; in Bush’s first three years, unemployment was a mere 5.5%. Checkmate! And you thought Bush was a job-destroyer of Hooverian proportions.

But what is the rest of the story? Was perhaps one president creating jobs (“Good”) while one was destroying jobs (Bad)? Mike goes to the numbers (As an aid to my pro-Bush readers, I added the arrows and the labels “Good” and “Bad”):



Carter makes a number of other similarly ludicrous claims, so I encourage you to read Mike’s full post. Because I promise you, this is how it will work: it starts at NRO, then goes to Blogs for Bush. Soon the Washington Times will be arguing that Bush’s first three years were better, economically, than Clinton’s. Then conservative columnists in mainstream papers will pick up the line. Soon reporters will say things like “opinions differ on which president had the better economic record in their first term” or perhaps more egregiously, “on a number of measures, the economy was better in Bush’s first three years than Clinton’s.” By that time, some sap in your workplace or local bar will believe and repeat this silly claim. So read and be prepared.

AB