The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Political Ammunition => Topic started by: Chris on September 03, 2008, 01:51:51 PM
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How does the performance of the U.S. economy really compare with other advanced economies over the eight years of George Bush's presidency? Data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the International Comparison Program (ICP) (a cooperative venture coordinated by the World Bank) and the U.S. Census Bureau allow a nonpartisan, factual assessment. Here are some of the findings:
Economic growth
U.S. output has expanded faster than in most advanced economies since 2000. The IMF reports that real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of 2.2% over the period 2001-2008 (including its forecast for the current year). President Bush will leave to his successor an economy 19% larger than the one he inherited from President Clinton. This U.S. expansion compares with 14% by France, 13% by Japan and just 8% by Italy and Germany over the same period.
Income and wealth distribution
The latest World Bank estimates show that the richest 20% of U.S. households had a 45.8% share of total income in 2000, similar to the levels in the U.K. (44.0%) and Israel (44.9%). In 65 other countries the richest quintile had a larger share than in the U.S.
Employment
The U.S. unemployment rate averaged 4.7% from 2001-2007. This compares with a 5.2% average rate during President Clinton's term of office, and is well below the European average of 8.3% since 2000.
Health services
The U.S. spends easily the highest amount per capita ($6,657 in 2005) on health, more than double that in Britain. But because of private funding (55% of the total) the burden on the U.S. taxpayer (9.1% of GDP) is kept to similar levels as France and Germany. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 84.7% of the U.S. population was covered by health insurance in 2007, an increase of 3.6 million people over 2006. The uninsured can receive treatment in hospitals at the expense of private insurance holders.
(more...) (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122039890722392873.html?mod=rss_opinion_main)
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Great Ammo... :clap: thanks! Posting it at my favorite libtards site as we speak...
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Maybe I'm suspicious, but I have to wonder if the current mess could have been caused by George Soros somehow.
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Current mess is directly due to FNMA and FHLMC getting out of the 'guarantor of conforming loans' business, and getting into the 'subsidized loans for under-served populations' business...
There's a reason that most of those under-served populations didn't get loans, and it had nothing to do with race.