There is a common misinterpretation of terms at work here, so lets define
our key term. A recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of declining
GDP. For the recent recession, that actually began fall of 2000, with the
official recession declared in March 2001. The economic board that the US
typically looks to declare such things (NBER) recently stated that the
recession was over in November 2001, and that the GDP has since been in
recovery. This should not be confused with employment/unemployment. While
the two can be tightly related, they need not be.

To your point 2.A, what should this or any other president to increase
employment rates? There are generally two course of action:
1) Try to use fiscal, monetary, tax or regulatory policy to create incentive
for business to invest and grow, creating more jobs
2) Try to directly create jobs through adding to the federal workforce,
subsidies to various industries, bailouts, etc.

Doing the first is the traditional way to grow the economy, and has been
successful several times in US history, but is not always immediate in
reaction. Doing the second historically provides temporary employment
relief, but increases long term debt -- effectively borrowing off the
future. Bush's economic policies, by the way, almost all fall into the first
category

To your point 2.B, since taking office, tell me precisely where has Bush or
anyone in the administration placed any blame for the economy on Clinton? I
have heard many do so, and they are largely conservative voices, but I have
not read anywhere that Bush has done so -- and I read a lot.


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"Charlie Self" wrote in message
...
Ben Siders writes:

1. He gave out tax cuts during a recession against every sane
economist's
recommendations.

The recession is over. It has been for a while now, and this isn't just
me saying, "I think it's over", by the definition of an economic
recession, it's been over for months. In any case, I think tax cuts are
one of the best things for the economy at almost any time.

Puredee nonseense, Ben. If the recession is over, why are we losing jobs
so
quickly? And, more to the point, what is Bush & Babies doing about the job
losses other than to blame them on Clinton's policies?



Charlie Self

"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating
plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants."
George W. Bush