The Republican 9/11 excuse for the economy no longer works

Whenever I debate a conservative on Executive economic policy, it reminds me of a game of cat and mouse.  None of their reasons add up.  When you confront them on their reasoning, their defensive explanations get even more outrageous.  Let me explain.  Here is typically how the economic debate goes:

CONSERVATIVE: "Liberals don't know anything about economics."

ME: "Oh yeah, so you think that the 25 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president had nothing to do with economics?"

CONSERVATIVE: "No, that was Bush Sr's economy, which Clinton inherited.  It takes three or four years for a president's fiscal policy to impact the economy.  So had it not been for Bush Sr, Clinton would not have been able to take credit for the prosperity of the 1990s."

ME: "Oh really?  So then if it takes between three and four years for a president's economic policy to matter, then Reagan must have been responsible for the '91 recession."

CONSERVATIVE: "No.  The Democratic Congress caused that."

ME: "That's actually wrong because the Democrats passed Reagan's budget.  But let's pretend that you're right.  The current president has had a Republican Congress the entire time he has been in power.  It's been at least five years.  Isn't Bush responsible for the poor economy this decade?"

CONSERVATIVE: "You liberals forget that we are at war.  Osama bin Laden attacked us on September 11th.  So you can only judge Bush from a few years after that.  Since 2003, the economy has been doing great."

Usually by that point, the conservative thinks he is in control of the debate.  But according to a government report released today, the economy is not heading in the right direction.  The "Think Progress" blog explained it perfectly:

1. Monthly job growth since August 2003 is 50% lower than the average of President Clinton’s entire term. Since August 2003, job growth has averaged 160,000 per month. During Clinton’s eight years in office job growth averaged 236,000 per month.

2. Real wages have fallen since August 2003. The average worker’s real wages were twenty cents lower in June 2006 than they were in August 2003.

So don't let any conservative tell you that our economy has been doing well since 2003.  As far as job growth is concerned, it is far behind the rate of growth during the Clinton years.  We are almost five years removed from the September 11th attacks.  This is Bush's economic mess.  And it goes to show why the simple supply-side formula of tax cuts for the rich and subsidies for big business does not automatically lead to higher wages for the middle class and greater prosperity for all.

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Other blogs writing about the Bush economic policy: Ratcliffe Blog, The Democratic Daily, Angry Bear, Mock, Paper and Scissors,  The Locust Fork, Maha Blog, Economist's View, My Left Wing, AFL-CIO, Decision '08.