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October 20, 2006
It's the economy, stupid
According to George Will, the ability to ignore the good economic news in the final weeks before the election leads one to conclude that the Democrats -- and the mainstream media -- are suffering from "economic hypochondria."
"Worst economy since Herbert Hoover," John Kerry said in 2004, while that year's growth (3.9 percent) was adding to America's gross domestic product the equivalent of the GDP of Taiwan (the 19th-largest economy). Nancy Pelosi vows that if Democrats capture Congress they will "jump-start our economy." A "jump-start " is administered to a stalled vehicle. But since the Bush tax cuts went into effect in 2003, the economy's growth rate (3.5 percent) has been better than the average for the 1980s (3.1) and 1990s (3.3). Today's unemployment rate (4.6 percent) is lower than the average for the 1990s (5.8) -- lower, in fact, than the average for the past 40 years (6.0). Some stall.
Economic hypochondria, a derangement associated with affluence, is a byproduct of the welfare state: An entitlement mentality gives Americans a low pain threshold -- witness their recurring hysteria about nominal rather than real gasoline prices -- and a sense of being entitled to economic dynamism without the frictions and "creative destruction" that must accompany dynamism. Economic hypochondria is also bred by news media that consider the phrase "good news" an oxymoron, even as the U.S. economy, which has performed better than any other major industrial economy since 2001, drives the Dow to record highs. ...
President Bush's tax cuts were supposed to cause a cataract of red ink. In fiscal 2006, however, federal revenue as a share of GDP was 18.4 percent, slightly above the post-1962 average of 18.2. And the federal budget deficit was $247.7 billion, just 1.9 percent of the $13.1 trillion GDP. That is below the average for the 1970s (2.1), 1980s (3.0) and 1990s (2.2).
Captain Ed's analysis is brutal -- and accurate.
Welfare-state proponents cannot stand prosperity, in a very real sense. The more prosperous a nation becomes through capital investment and reduction of federal burdens, the more desperate they become to sell gloom and doom to end it. Their raison d'etre disappears when market economies are allowed to function normally. They sell dependence on managed economies, and in order to survive politically, they have to paint the worst possible picture of economic success that comes outside of central management.
In a rational world, this desperation would be considered satire. Unemployment has dropped to near record lows, and all the Democrats can do is to treat the economy as if it were the Second Coming of the Great Depression. The reluctance of the media to respond with the economic facts turns this from satire to farce.
Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst form of government, but it was better than all other forms. The same could be said of the GOP; it at least has the advantage of standing for a strong national defence and allowing Americans to keep more of their hard-earned cash, while the Democrats stand for what, exactly?
Yeah, as bad as the Republicans have been, let's turn over the keys to the economy and our security to Rangel, Schumer, Pelosi and Reid.
As Tommy Flanagan says, "Yeah, Democrats; that's the ticket!"
Or, as Jose Jiminez was wont to respond, "Oh, I hope not."
Posted by Mike Lief at October 20, 2006 12:07 AM
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