Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 5:21 PM by Gene

Since President Bush took office, real after-tax per capita personal income has increased more than 12.5 percent -- an average of $3,750 per person. More than 30 percent of the country's net worth has been added since the president's 2003 tax cuts.

Real wages have increased 2.2 percent during the 12 months ending in August 2007. This is much higher than the average growth rate during the '90s, and translates into an extra $1,266 for a two wage-earner family.

Exports have increased over 14.8 percent during the 12 months ending in July 2007, and the trade deficit has been reduced by $8.3 billion.

Real GDP grew at a strong 3.8 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2007. The U.S. economy is in its sixth year of sustained economic growth, averaging 2.7 percent a year since the turnaround in 2001 blahblahblah....

What I have come to detest about con-SER-va-tives is they believe economic growth can excuse the moral and social failings that make it seem we're moving backwards. A nation can be very prosperous and unhappy, and ours has economic growth and a hole in the middle -- no small thanks to the cipher who brought on all this economic growth.

Two professors, John ["BANG! BANG!"] Lott, economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Kevin A. Hassett, the Institute's director of economic policy studies, looked at newspaper articles on the economy. They wrote, "We found that newspaper headlines reporting economic news on unemployment, gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales and durable goods tended to be much more frequently negative when a Republican was in the White House...."

TRANSLATION: It's BIGMEDIA'S FAULT -- precisely what con-SER-va-tives say is behind our HOUSING BUST. CRETIN.