Abstract

What Recovery?

The author argues that the economic policies of U.S. President George W. Bush have done little to help poor and unemployed Americans. The President boasts that his tax cuts are working and we're on the right track. But is it time to celebrate? More than 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost since Bush took office. Nine million people are out of work, wages and salaries are stagnant or down, healthcare costs have increased to staggering double-digit rates, retirement savings have been ravaged by the stock-market meltdown, school budgets are taking severe hits, tuition at public universities is soaring and personal bankruptcies and debt are at an all-time high. Paying for health insurance is becoming a problem for more than just people living on low or fixed incomes, with many hospitals and neighborhood clinics saying that middle-class people are now joining the poor in seeking their care. More than 12 million American children live in poverty, and indeed, the United States has the worst child-poverty rate of all the industrialized countries. The ranks of the hungry are also increasing. Economic realities on Main Street, not Wall Street, haven't stopped the White House from trumpeting "mission accomplished" when it comes to our supposed economic recovery. The real "bottom line" taking into account the 3.4 percent gain in population since March 2001, shows that the economy is 6.9 million jobs short of where it would be if payroll levels had remained steady.