A Few Economic Statistics for James Carville’s Wife

I know some conservatives are not exactly fond of James Carville. But you have to feel for the man given the sheer stupidity of some of the things that his wife says. Amanda watched Mary Matalin on Meet the Press so we didn’t have to. First – she claimed that most Americans are happy with their personal finances and when that was shot down as not being true, she blamed the press:

MATALIN: Well, there’s an element of cognitive dissonance there, because if you ask them how their own personal finances are going, those numbers completely switch. Yes — he’s looking around. Those numbers are completely true. They absolutely switch on their own personal finances.
SHRUM: I think most people are getting very insecure about their personal finances.
MATALIN: That’s because they’re berated with these numbers. However, we haven’t had the contrast yet. People do not want, as a furtherance of economic policy, the kind of centralization Obama and Hillary are proposing, they don’t want more regulations, they don’t want higher taxes, they don’t want less trade. Maybe there’s a way to help the transition in Ohio and Pennsylvania, those manufacturing states. But when you start contrasting liberal liberal liberal — redistributionist policies with limited government policies — the limited government conservative policies, economics win every time.

Her husband to intervene with:

CARVILLE: Of course it is, and people are feeling it. This is not something created by the media. These mortgages, these high energy costs, these pathetic employment numbers, the health care costs, food costs — they’re just killing people out there. They’re not just being told that things are terrible. They’re feeling this every day.

Let’s talk numbers – shall we. The employment-population ratio stands at 62.9% which is not only down from the 63.4% as of December 2006 but is very disappointing when compared to the employment-population ratio during Clinton’s second term, which was often 64% or above. Real wages for production and nonsupervisory worker have been falling since September 2007 and is the same as it was back in September 2002. Total real GDP over seven years has been only 18.1%. This translates into an anemic 2.4% per year. The annualized growth rate for the last quarter was only 0.6% so some fear a recession is imminent. Finally, the Census Bureau reports that real median household income (2006$) has declined from $49,244 in 1999 to $48,201 in 2006. So no – the facts are the reason why many feel their own well being is not doing that great.

So what does Matalin do? Certainly not talk about the facts. She suggests that Democrats are trade protectionists. Gee – I never knew her boss (Dick Cheney) was a Democrat. After all, he was all in favor of those steel tariffs. Higher taxes are likely a necessity given the $8.95 trillion Federal debt the Bush-Cheney had created as of October 31, 2007, which is projected to rise to $10.41 trillion by October 31, 2009 according to the Economic Report of the President. That’s right, this report is forecasting a General Fund deficit over $700 billion for the current fiscal year and near $760 billion for the next year. Why? Those tax shifts in 2001 and 2003 that Matalin confuses with tax cuts for starters. Also the Prescription Drug Benefit and Iraq War that the Bush-Cheney pushed – both of which means more taxes in the long-run.

As far as “liberal liberal liberal — redistributionist policies”, what the heck is she referring to? Could it be the not often mention desire of some conservatives to slash our Social Security benefits while maintaining high payroll taxes that will be converted from payroll contributions to employment taxes to bail out this General Fund disaster that Bush-Cheney created. NOW – THAT’S REDISTRIBUTION!

One has to wonder why Meet the Press bothers with guests like this. But the executives at NBC have still not replaced Tim Russert as the host.