NBC’s Mark Murray has complied a fascinating bunch of “then and now” statistics from over the Bush presidency. Here’s his complete list:
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001) Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)
DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)
BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)
CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)
CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)
SATISFIED WITH THE NATION’S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)
FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent numbers available)
AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent available)
U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)
Although these numbers don’t paint anything like the whole picture, they neatly encapsulate what – to my mind – are the Bush presidency’s main domestic failures. There’s a much kinder portrait to be made on the foreign policy front, where initially flawed approaches have given way to new thinking and successes – most notably in Iraq. And that’s before we factor in the impressive development work that Bush has undertaken in, say, Africa. So far as these positive aspects of the Bush presidency are concerned, Tim Montgomerie’s series of posts on ‘What Bush got right’ is well worth reading.
Hat-tip: Craig Murray
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