...and we've saved the cost of more than three hundred military pensions this year alone...

[sisyphusshrugged]

Today's unexpectedly bad employment report dashed the White House's hopes of going into the heat of the presidential campaign with clear evidence of an economic turnaround and forced President Bush to defend his reliance on tax cuts as a remedy.

In a speech here hours after the government announced that the economy had lost 93,000 more jobs in August, Mr. Bush remained upbeat. He said that if Congress wanted to help, it should make the recent tax cuts permanent and enact other parts of his agenda, from limiting lawsuit awards against doctors and companies to allowing more domestic oil and gas drilling and easing regulations on businesses.

"We've taken steps to get our economy growing again, and there are some very hopeful signs that progress is being made," Mr. Bush told a cheering crowd of supporters at an industrial warehouse here. "Yet, today's unemployment report shows we've got more to do. And I'm not going to be satisfied until every American who's looking for a job can find a job."

But he offered no new initiatives, and with the budget deficit surging, a trend that is accelerating as the costs of occupying and rebuilding Iraq continue to grow, his ability to offer any expensive new proposals will remain limited.

Mr. Bush has already pushed three tax cuts through Congress in three years and sold them as the best solution to the economy's short-term problems. Now, having wedded himself to that policy, his political fortunes in 2004 depend to a large extent on whether a rebound in economic growth will reverse - by the time voters start making up their minds - the steady slide in employment that has plagued the United States through the first two and a half years of his presidency.

The Democratic presidential candidates seized on the jobs report as further evidence of what they see as Mr. Bush's economic mismanagement. Since he took office, the economy has lost nearly 2.7 million nonfarm jobs, and last month's job losses were the worst since March, according to the Labor Department.

"For seven straight months, businesses have had to cut the number of jobs available in this bleak Bush economy," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut. "At this rate, there will be only one job left to cut by November 2004: George Bush's."

Mr. Bush shot back at his critics, defending his tax cuts in particular as the right medicine at the right time.

"Tax relief means new jobs for Americans," the president said.

But the economic news provided evidence to those economists who say the economy will be slow to add new jobs and it put new pressure on a White House that is already struggling to keep Mr. Bush's standing as commander in chief from being diminished by the continued bloodshed in Iraq.

Clearly hoping that the latest round of tax cuts would diminish the role of the economy in the presidential race, Mr. Bush had spent much of the summer, including portions of what the White House called his "working vacation" on his ranch in August, serving up a message of cautious optimism.

But many economists are doubtful that the economy, while increasingly robust in many ways, will begin generating large-scale employment gains anytime soon. If their assessment is correct, it raises the prospect of a jobless recovery in the 14 months left until Election Day...

Comments

[notapipe.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or does the Bush posistion in this article look like a joke and a parody of itself?

[platosearwax.livejournal.com]

When are they going to learn that cutting taxes (particularly the taxes they always want to cut) doesn't create jobs. Didn't work for Reagan or Bush I, won't work for Shrub. What's funny is here in Norway we are going to end up shifting to the right in the next election because of jobs and the economy. Although, the right here is the center there.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

The man is not a rat.....
Rats are cute.
So occasionally are weasels.
Killer Shrews!!!!
That's it!