Bush's Domestic Agenda

President's Domestic Agenda Laid Bare

President Bush will finish his term with one of the worst economic records of any president in the last 70 years. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net decline in employment over a four year period. His tax and budget policies have produced the worst fiscal deterioration in a half century and the largest budget deficits in U.S. history. Five million more Americans have lost health insurance on his watch while those with coverage face double-digit cost increases. Poverty and inequality rates have risen for three straight years.

Jobs record: More than 800,000 total jobs; 1.6 million private sector jobs; and 2.7 million manufacturing lost over the last four years. As the Economic Policy Institute reports, when the president's last tax package (called the "Jobs and Growth Plan") took effect in 2003, the administration promised it would create 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004 – more than 300,000 new jobs per month. The economy produced only 96,000 jobs last month, more than 200,000 jobs fewer than predicted. In fact, as EPI states, "job creation [has] failed to meet the administration's projections in 13 of the last 15 months."

Health care record: 5 million more uninsured in the last four years and skyrocketing health care costs for everyone else. The president promised to address America's health care crisis during the 2000 campaign. Yet he did nothing. Now, 45 million Americans lack basic health coverage; health care costs are up nearly 60 percent; and those with coverage face double-digit increases in premiums and deductibles. The president continues to deny Americans the opportunity to import cheaper prescription drugs, choosing to favor the profits of the drug industry over the needs of the elderly.

Fiscal record : $5 trillion in projected budget surpluses turned into $5 trillion in projected debt over the next ten years. Trillions of dollars in tax cuts geared primarily to the wealth have blown a hole in the federal budget that threatens economic growth. When America's foreign creditors decide to pull the plug, average Americans will face steep declines in living standards, steep increases in interest rates, and few good job prospects.