REPUBLICANS: STILL ROOTING FOR FAILURE

The Wall Street Journal is reporting - and Congressman Kevin McCarthy's (R-Bakersfield) Friday evening "Facebook Post" verifies - that the Republicans are going to start attacking President Obama because of his dismal job creation record. Not only have 2.2 million jobs been lost since the recession began, but unemployment now hovers around 9.4% for the nation.

Part of the "jobs problem" that Republicans are rooting for can be attributed to the too-bold-to-be-true projections made early on by the Obama administration (which were designed to bolster confidence). As well, the missteps made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, as he stumbled in front of Congress and during the roll out of the various bailout programs, did not help build confidence. Finally, and perhaps most important, George W. Bush handed President Obama a national economic disaster. Still, can you blame the fire department because the house continues to burn while they're getting the hoses out? The Republicans seem to think so.

But as the Wall Street Journal points out, the record is clear. George W. Bush not only had to backtrack from his first term job projections, but he ended up with the worst job creation record of any U.S. President since records have been kept. And this was after President Bush added over $6 trillion to our national debt (a lesson for President Obama?).

George W. Bush's job creation record (3 million) even pales in comparison to stagflation-haunted Jimmy Carter (10.5 million). Even John F. Kennedy, in his short tenure, created more jobs than George W. Bush (3.5 million jobs). In fact, going all the way back to President Harry S. Truman, payroll expansion under presidential administrations is dominated by Democrats rather than Republicans. Bill Clinton leads the way with 21.1% (23.1 million jobs created), followed by Truman's 20.1% (8.4 million jobs created) and LBJ's 20.8% (11.9 million jobs created). Ronald Reagan is fourth at 17.6% (16 million jobs).

With current trends we can expect all of the jobs "created" under George W. Bush to disappear by the end of the summer (yet, the result of his failed policies remain). In the meantime, we can also expect the Republicans to continue to root for our nation's continued economic demise. But can you blame them? With their record under President Bush this is the only way they believe they can make it back into power.

So much for Country First.

- Mark