Bush Record on the Economy

President Bush made a bold statement today during his Rose Garden press conference that raises a number of freightening statistics about the state of our economy. The President said he hopes the November election is based on his economic performance.

Let's take a quick look at that economic performance:

• When President Bush took over the White House in 2001, he inherited a projected ten-year surplus of 5.6 trillion dollars. But in five short years, President Bush has turned that surpus into a $2.9 trillion projected deficit over 10 years. In fact, the President has borrowed more money in 5 years than the past 42 presidents combined.

• The projected trade deficit for this year will hit a new record of over $800 billion - our highest trade deficit ever. Imports exceeded the value of exports by $68 billion, up from $64.8 billion in June. The more the trade deficit grows and our imports exceed our exports, we place American businesses and workers in greater danger.

• Since President Bush took office, America has lost more than 2.9 million manufacturing jobs. We need to create at least 75,000 jobs a month to keep pace, but last month we created only 57,000 jobs. That’s a deficit of 18,000 jobs.