Dodd declares – economic crisis ended when Obama took office

Just received an e-mail update from Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). It seems as though our economy is still “feeling the effects of last year’s crisis.” Now, last year was 2008, and this year is 2009. I guess he figures since President Obama took office, the crisis must have ended and it was – of course – all Bush’s fault!

dodd-last-years-crisisDodd included the reference to last year’s (2008) crisis in the first paragraph of his e-mail. Now, I’m not exactly certain which crisis he was referring to, but to imply the crisis ended at the beginning of 2009 is a complete stretch. Talk about trying to rewrite history as soon as possible.

First of all, things were definitely a mess in 2008 and I blame politicians on both sides of the aisle for the issues and you know that I’m all about understanding the symptoms of the disease, but come on.

The e-mail begins, with my emphasis added.

These are tough times for Connecticut families. With our economy still feeling the effects of last year’s crisis, businesses are struggling and the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high.

It’s time to build a new 21st-century prosperity in Connecticut, one that strengthens our manufacturing sector, our small businesses, and our middle class.

That’s why, today, I’ve released a new plan to put Connecticut back to work.

200912-unemployment-chartYup. All Bush’s fault. Dodd had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Just a couple of reminders to the senator. In February of 2008, we were basically at full employment – considered to be 4.7 percent by economists. Things were not looking to good at that time and by mid-summer it was looking worse. We ended 2008 with unemployment at 7.2 percent.

At the start of 2009, Dodd figured the crisis was over, but unemployment continued to rise, with a couple of months of drops to the current 10 percent.

200911-cbo-deficit-revThen of course, we have the deficit figures. In 2009, the original 2009 projections were a 2009 fiscal year deficit of $1.4 trillion, that’s more than triple the 2008 deficit.

It gets worse. The revised figures provided by the Congressional Budget Office projects a potential revision of up to $2 trillion for the 2009 budget deficit.

As a reminder, the entire 2002 budget – the whole friggin’ thing – submitted by President George W. Bush was $2 trillion.

Does this data confirm what Dodd is trying to sell us? Not thinking so, and I have not even told you how much the total federal revenue stream is down in 2009 – you don’t want to know…

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

2 Comments

  1. donh on December 7, 2009 at 8:09 pm

    I agree that the economic crisis ended with the start of 2009. The beginning of 2009 saw 200+ years of capitalist free market traditions fall in a bloodless coup to  a domestic neo faschista  regime that merged  government with large  corporations, banks, media, and health service. "crisis" no more. We are in the end times. Some rats flee a sinking ship, but the fat rats all run to high ground and crowd into the Captain's bridge . They could have joined us at fixing the holes in our ship of state. Instead all the privileged  pompous leaders of politics , bureocracy, and business joined together on the captain's bridge to spit down in contempt of the little people who do not bail water fast enough to save their multi million dollar life styles.



  2. Dimsdale on December 8, 2009 at 3:58 am

    Dodd is seriously delusional.  Only a Democrat would try to tell you that 5-6% is less than 10%.  I wonder if he can actually face his constituents (assuming he remembers who they are.  Hint: it is not Harry Reid) and tell them that with a straight face.

     

    This is right out of the Josef Goebbels playbook: repeat a lie often enough, and it sounds like the truth.   Add a dash of modern Democrat, i.e. "it's free", "for the children", "it will only tax the rich", and it is (still) "Bush's fault", and you have the recipe for the next great decline in civilization, courtesy of Dodd and his cronies.

     

    Thanks guys!  /sarcasm



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