NY TIMES MISLEADS ON BUSH'S ECONOMIC RECORD

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DEAN BAKER, PROSPECT - The NYT had a piece on President Bush's economic
legacy. In the second sentence it tells readers that: "Mr. Bush has
spent years presiding over an economic climate of growth that would be
the envy of most presidents." adding that "Yet much to the consternation
of his political advisers, he has had trouble getting credit for it, in
large part because Americans were consumed by the war in Iraq."

Is that right? Let's check the numbers. Here the ranking of the
presidential terms since 1960 by average annual GDP growth:

Kennedy-Johnson -- 5.2%
Clinton -- 3.6%
Reagan -- 3.4%
Carter -- 3.4%
Nixon-Ford -- 2.7%
Bush II --2.6%
Bush I --1.9%

President Bush's growth record is better than his father's, but it is
worse than the record of every other president in the last half century.
It's not clear why they would be envious.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press

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