· Since World War II, Democratic presidents oversaw on average an unemployment rate of 4.8%. For Republicans, it was 6.3%.
· The Democratic Clinton administration presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history. When Clinton left office, there was a 10-year projected budget surplus of $1.6 trillion.
· In less than a year and a half, Republican George W. Bush wiped out that projected budget surplus, and within three years, he turned the $236 billion surplus he inherited into a $375 billion deficit.
· To finance government spending (after giving the wealthiest 1% of Americans 43% of the tax cuts), Bush robbed the Social Security trust fund and the US Treasury owes billions to foreign investors who buy Treasury bonds--causing the National Debt to rise 29%, to $7.3 trillion. (It is now over $10 trillion)
Keep in mind that these figures are from George W. Bush’s first term. He has soared to new heights of fiscal irresponsibility during his second term and continues to set records in economic incompetence.
· In the past seven years, we have experienced the weakest post-recession job creation cycle since the Great Depression, record deficits, record household debt, a record bankruptcy rate and a substantial increase in poverty. We have gone from being the nation with the biggest budget surplus in history to becoming the nation with the largest deficit in history. ... research has shown that more than 70% of our national debt was created by just three Republican presidents [Reagan, Bush I, Bush II].”--Arthur L. Blaustein, former chairman of the President's National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/19/08
· “...[A]s much as Republicans would like to tag Barack Obama and Democrats as big spenders, it’s Republicans who have been America’s biggest spenders. It’s not even close. ...[S]ince 1945, when Republicans have been in charge of both the White House and Congress, they have never, not once, reduced spending. ...Reagan ran up a bigger debt than every president before him combined. The budget deficit exploded under his leadership and the national debt tripled. ...[T]he debt has grown from under $1 trillion before Reagan to over $10 trillion after George Bush! And, yet, with all of this spending, we still don't have national health insurance and Social Security is more endangered than ever.”-- Bruce Tenenbaum, Huffingtonpost.com, 10/16/08
· “Today’s median-earning, median-spending middle-class family sends two people into the workforce, but at the end of the day they have about $1,500 less for discretionary spending than their one-income counterparts of a generation ago.”-- Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Magazine, Jan-Feb 2006
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Do you need a job, or maybe a second job, or a third job?
· “You work three jobs? ...Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.”--George W. Bush, to a divorced mother of three, 2/4/05
Vote Democratic and increase your chances of finding a job. Join a union, and maybe one job will be enough.
· “The worst Democrat for job growth since they started keeping track about 70 years ago was Kennedy [whose term was cut short], and he was virtually tied with the best Republicans for job growth (Reagan and Nixon). Every other Democrat in that time was much better for job growth than every other Republican. ...If you want job growth, you must elect a Democratic president.”--Richard M. Mathews, The LA Progressive, 8/8/08 (See the job growth data at www.laprogressive.com/2008/08/08/who-creates-jobs-democratic-presidents-do/)
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If you really want to change America for the better, electing Barack Obama is not enough. We need to give the Democratic Party a filibuster-proof majority in Congress. Since the Democrats won a narrow majority in 2006, Republicans in the Senate have used procedural filibusters to block legislation which would have resulted in:
· Withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.
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