Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, when not focused on attacking Gov. Sarah Palin, seems to want to dig up the old Clinton playbook and run on the economy being worse here than in Burma.
And why not? Clinton's famous "it's the economy, stupid" campaign, in addition to President G.H.W. Bush's tax increase flip-flop and 19.7 million votes for Ross Perot, made Bill Clinton the President by convincing 43% of the electorate that we were in the worst economy in fifty years.
There was no evidence then, just as there is no evidence now, to support the doom-and-gloom.
In fact, the most recent Census data shows twenty five years of the rich get richer and the poor getting richer much faster.
"The new Census Bureau data on income and poverty reveal that many of the economic trends in this country are a lot more favorable than America's detractors seems to think. In 2007, overall real median family income increased to $50,233, up $600 from 2006. The real median income for intact families -- mother and father in the home -- rose to $78,000, an all-time high."
"Although incomes fell sharply in the U.S. after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 (and still haven't fully recovered), these latest statistics reflect a 25-year trend of upward economic mobility. More important, Barack Obama is wrong when he states on his campaign Web site that the economic policies started by Ronald Reagan have rewarded "wealth not work." Based on this false claim -- that the rich have benefited by economic growth while others have not -- he intends to raise tax rates on high-income individuals."
There is plenty to be concerned about in the American economy, but nothing really suggests a bigger, more expensive government will cure what ails us.
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