Bush Economy Stronger Than Clinton's

The Bush Administration, which doesn't have that much to brag about these days, is touting the current economic expansion and claiming a favorable comparison to Bill Clinton's economy:

The White House says the economic surge that began five and a half years ago on President Bush's watch is more robust than the much-touted expansion during the Clinton administration.

"This is a much stronger expansion in a lot of ways," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told The Examiner. "It's much deeper and more measured."

Fratto's assertion was disputed by Gene Sperling, economic adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spoke to The Examiner in his capacity as former National Economic Adviser to President Bill Clinton...

Fratto cited last Friday's stronger-than-expected jobs report as evidence of the strength of the economy under Bush. The Labor Department reported that 180,000 new jobs were created in March and the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, matching a five-year low.

"If you go back to this point in the Clinton expansion," Fratto said, "they would have loved to have seen the numbers that we have right now."

"On the unemployment rate, we're a full percentage point below where they were at the same point in the expansion - 60 or 61 months in," he said. "They would have loved to have been at 4.4 percent. They were still up in the mid-5s, which is huge, when you think about it."

Of course, the Clinton camp is furiously pooh-poohing the Bush boast, and many Dems look back on the Clinton years with a gleam in their eye because of the heady economic days, but what the article doesn't mention is that both expansions have something in common - they were both caused by Republican tax cuts. The Reagan tax cuts finally undid the damage from the 70's and Jimmy Carter and really began to blossom during the 90's. Bush's tax cuts early in his administration helped turn around an economy that had begun to slip into a recession during that later months of the Clinton presidency, and despite large job losses during the first year or so of Bush, bounced back with a vengence.

The Clinton legacy team will continue to fight back as they cannot allow anything to tarnish the halo around Bill and Hillary, but I think the Bush team can be rightfully proud of their economic expansion.