FOX Republican Debates!

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by Chan

Unemployment is no lower than it has been in the 1990s. Inflation is higher. He took the government from a near budget surplus (if, indeed, it is ever possible for the government to have a surplus) to a multi-trillion dollar deficit. Government spending is higher than it was under Clinton. American liberties are being eroded in the name of "security" as the Bush administration turns an unconstitutional war that should have been limited to going after Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban government in Afghanistan that supported him to a quagmire in both Afghanistan and Iraq that we can't get out of any time soon in a way that saves face for the United States.

wrong. unemployment is nearly a point below the average of the 1990s.

currently unemployment is around 4.3% the 1990s ranged around 5.5 %

while on the surface that might now seem like a lot but it is a statistaclly large number. indicating millions of jobs.

Home ownership (even with recient issues with high risk loans) is at an all time high. Home ownership in minority areas is at an even greater all time high.

inflation is higher in a post ressession period than it was in an unusually low period of the 1990's. the 1990's was very much an anomoly. this was during a period when we were in the beginnings of a major shift in business modeling and an entirely new employment paradym was in the beginnings states.

that bubble busted if you remember. dont blame GWB for what happend before he took the oath of office.

as for American Liberties.... well, name one American liberty that has eroded?

Originally Posted by Ferd

wrong. unemployment is nearly a point below the average of the 1990s.

Are you sure about that?

currently unemployment is around 4.3% the 1990s ranged around 5.5 %

Did it range around or was that the average? You can't have it both ways. Actually, it's at 4.7 percent today. It's higher today than it was at the low point of the 1990s (around 1999). SOURCE

while on the surface that might now seem like a lot but it is a statistaclly large number. indicating millions of jobs.

Any reduction in unemployment is usually a good thing. Like all unemployment figures touted by politicians, it doesn't take into account all the people on public assistance ("Welfare," Social Security Disability, other government disability) or all the people who've simply stopped collecting unemployment payments and stopped looking for work.

Home ownership (even with recient issues with high risk loans) is at an all time high. Home ownership in minority areas is at an even greater all time high.

And with home ownership comes increased debt load, which in the long term is not good for the economy.

inflation is higher in a post ressession period than it was in an unusually low period of the 1990's. the 1990's was very much an anomoly. this was during a period when we were in the beginnings of a major shift in business modeling and an entirely new employment paradym was in the beginnings states.

Was it an anomaly or was it the fruit of Ronald Reagan's tax cuts in the 1980s?

that bubble busted if you remember. dont blame GWB for what happend before he took the oath of office.

Of course the stock market bubble burst: it was making a very necessary correction of an abnormally inflated market. It's going to burst again. This kind of thing seemingly happens in cycles and presidents have nothing to do with it.

as for American Liberties.... well, name one American liberty that has eroded?

The federal government having the right to obtain information about you (such as phone records and what books you check out at the public library, church records, and other records that third parties have on you) without a search warrant and with the third parties being prohibited from telling you about it; roving wiretaps; seizing business records without having evidence that an individual citizen has links to terrorism; access to credit reports, financial records, etc. without a warrant just by issuing a "National Security Letter"; the nearly complete lack of judicial oversight (since the federal government under the Patriot Act doesn't have to get a warrant or have probable cause, the latter would have been necessary for the warrant). Other liberties eroded include increased federal government secrecy, particularly around the implementation of "emergency" laws such as the Patriot Act; indefinite detention of U. S. citizens without access to an attorney or without criminal charges being filed; shall I go on?