DEBUNKING RIGHT WING ECONOMIC TALKING POINTS

THE CRASH OF 2008:

Tony's #1 claims that consumer confidence is the lowest in 30 years. Have you ever noticed that righties never mention the Crash of 2008? 
Even before the crash, the market was on its way down fast. From October of 2007 to the Crash in October 2008, the market lost 46% of its value. Almost half of the market wiped out Tony forgot! Tony's #1 isn't even true because from 2006 to Dec 2008 consumer confidence dropped off a cliff. From late 2007 to January 2009 consumer confidence was lower than it had been for many years and lower than it is now. When the President took office it soon shot up a notch. It's still not high enough but that is due mostly to the Road Block Congress which 10% of Americans now approve of. 

In #2, Tony reminds us that unemployment has been above 8% for quite a while but again forgets the job destroying Crash of 2008.  Almost half of our net worth lost and Tony doesn't seem to remember how that would effect investment, production and jobs. Hello! Anyone home? Mr Boutin also neglects to note we have had 22 straight months of adding jobs since we got our head out of the water in late 2009. Unemployment dropped again last month and over 200,000 jobs were added. 

In the matter of Tony's #3, poverty levels rose steadily under Bush and continued after ther crash of 2008 into the Obama Presidency. I 

even remember the news articles then. Note that the Clinton years were marked by a steady dropp in poverty levels.Bush was a corporatist that did the bidding of those who seek to corner America's capital through legislation. The OCCUPY movement is a response to such anti-democratic aristocratic behavior of righty wing corporate power and the US Supreme Courts Citizen United decision.

Then Tony really steps in it on #4. He blames the President for the Credit downgrade when Moody's statement made clear it was the recalcitrant Congress, especially in regards to raising revenue that warranted the downgrade. You can't pay the bills without raising capital. Never in our history has Congress held raising the debt ceiling hostage to other demands. Tony forgot that, too. How convenient.

Tony's #5 is that Obama has the worst job record in 50 years. Did Tony mention that the unemployment during the Reagan recession went from 7.2% in 7/81 to 10.8% in 12/82?  Those supply side tax cuts really worked! Then Reagan raised taxes 11 times and the debt ceiling 17 times. Tripled our national debt, too. And don't forget the crash of 1987 which wiped out 23% of the market's value and $500 billion in one day. The fact that in the last year of Bush's presidency we lost at least 2.6 million jobs is also forgotten by Mr Boutin  In the last four months of 2008 the country bled over 2 million jobs. It was the worst job loss since 1945 and the first time in 70 years that there were two months in a row of over 500,000 jobs lost. That is the economic wasteland Obama inherited and Tony blames it on Obama. 

In #6, Tony mentions the unemployment rate of African-Americans. It peaked around 16% in this recession but peaked at 22% under the Reagan recession of 7/81 - 6/83. In his "Obama worst in history" letter, Tony must have forgotten that along with the recession of 81-83 and the crashes of 1987 and 2008. In fact, the unemployment rate of blacks began to rise as soon as Bush was inaugurated. It flattened slightly in 2006 but shot straight up in 2007. increasing from 8% to 13% before Obama took office. It has risen a bit more, leveling out in 2010.

Tony's #7 states:"Worst HOUSING CRISIS since the great depression, with home values STILL IN FREE FALL, down more than 35-percent on average." The freefall began in 2004 in the biggest cities and in 2005 nationally after home prices had been over-inflated.  From 2005 to President Obama's inauguration, home prices dropped about 35% - DURING BUSH'S TERM. When Obama took office, home prices rose 23% until the middle of 2010 when they stalled and dropped some. 

In the matter of #8 claim on food stamps, again, Tony still forgets there was a crash in 2008 and almost every indicator began to drop off a cliff by 2007. Almost 3 million jobs lost in a year and millions losing homes and Tony doesn't think the newly unemployed might need some food stamps. Food stamp participation jumped under Bush I, dropped under Clinton and began a sharp climb under Bush II which continued right into and beyond the crash of 2008. 

In #9, Tony claims Obama compares to the Depression rates. The Depression wasn't just one period; it was several. From 1929 to 1932 was one. The data from 29-32 mirror the last years of the Bush terms. CRASH! Obama does much better than President Hoover, stopping the jobs bleeding far quicker. The next chapter was from 1932 to 1938. By 1934 the unemployment rate had reached 25%. FDR then applied Keynesian strategies and the unemployment rate dropped to 11% by 1937. Wow! Conservatives in 1937 then demanded austerity measures, which FDR agreed to. Then we dove into another deep recession and unemployment shot back up to 20%. FDR immediately applied another stimulus plan and a year later we were back on track. Unemployment dropped steadily for almost a decade. Today's Congress is anti-Keynes & anti-Obama so they will block the same plans that could bring similar improvements. 

In #10 Tony claims its "The SLOWEST recovery from ANY recession since WWII". Well, Tony, that's because we are recovering from the biggest crash since 1929-1932. During Bush's second term, 46% of the market's value and 35% of housing values were wiped out. No other recession compares with the depth of this one.  Recovery will naturally take longer because the crash was deeper and the problem is now made tougher by the GOP obstructionism. The original stimulus was too small and the present jobs act is being thwarted. Every recovery since the crash of 1929 has been aided by Keynesianism yet righties rail against Keynes. They tell you that the present recovery is slower than other's but then they fight the same strategies that worked in the past. The Tea Party says no to everything that could help Americans.

As you can see, since the Great Depression, this is the deepest recession in American History