Bush also earns low marks for economic policy
Thomas F. Schaller
Baltimore Sun
If you think President Bush's abysmal public approval is strictly a function of his mismanagement of the Iraq war, think again: While Mr. Bush's overall approval, depending on the poll, hovers near 30 percent, his approval for handling the economy is not much better.
A June national poll by the American Research Group, in fact, pegged Mr. Bush's overall approval at 27 percent and his handling of the economy just 2 points higher, at 29 percent. Given that the war has eaten most of the president's national agenda, is it any surprise that he gets low marks for policies that have nothing to do with Iraq? Beyond war-making, he's done almost nothing.
And, of course, by committing the United States to spend on that war an amount that will undoubtedly reach a cool trillion dollars in the near term - and hundreds of billions more for veterans' health benefits and to replace military equipment in the coming decades - Mr. Bush's invasion and occupation of what we might as well start calling the 51st American state are not without economic consequences. War, after all, is also an economic policy.
So how is the American economy doing?
The Bush administration proudly boasts that the median household income grew in 2005 - by 1.1 percent, to be exact - something that hasn't happened since 1999. But this figure includes senior citizens, most of whom derive a significant portion of their income from Social Security payments. Once the 2.8 percent income growth of elderly Americans is removed, the change in median income for working-age households is negative - as it has been in every year of the Bush era.
(Continued here.)
Baltimore Sun
If you think President Bush's abysmal public approval is strictly a function of his mismanagement of the Iraq war, think again: While Mr. Bush's overall approval, depending on the poll, hovers near 30 percent, his approval for handling the economy is not much better.
A June national poll by the American Research Group, in fact, pegged Mr. Bush's overall approval at 27 percent and his handling of the economy just 2 points higher, at 29 percent. Given that the war has eaten most of the president's national agenda, is it any surprise that he gets low marks for policies that have nothing to do with Iraq? Beyond war-making, he's done almost nothing.
And, of course, by committing the United States to spend on that war an amount that will undoubtedly reach a cool trillion dollars in the near term - and hundreds of billions more for veterans' health benefits and to replace military equipment in the coming decades - Mr. Bush's invasion and occupation of what we might as well start calling the 51st American state are not without economic consequences. War, after all, is also an economic policy.
So how is the American economy doing?
The Bush administration proudly boasts that the median household income grew in 2005 - by 1.1 percent, to be exact - something that hasn't happened since 1999. But this figure includes senior citizens, most of whom derive a significant portion of their income from Social Security payments. Once the 2.8 percent income growth of elderly Americans is removed, the change in median income for working-age households is negative - as it has been in every year of the Bush era.
(Continued here.)
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