Compare Results: Obama Stimulus VS Bush Tax Cuts

The weekly unemployment insurance claims report was released Thursday.  There were 500,000 claims during the week ending August 14, a nine month high, and the fifth week of an uptrend.

This chart compares Weekly Unemployment claims in the second year of the Obama stimulus with the second year of the Bush tax cuts.

We’re half way through the second year of the $887 Billion “stimulus” that President Obama promised would, in his words, “immediately jumpstart job creation and long term growth.”

Obama and his supporters continuously blame President Bush’s “policies” for  current economic misery, without connecting the dots between specific policies and economic results.  Bush does have a mixed economic record, but one “policy” that turned out to be an unqualified success was the round of tax cuts enacted in 2003, reversing 31 months of job losses.

Even in the best of times there are always some layoffs.  But as the economy improved after the tax cuts of 2003 the number of job losses declined, the unemployment rate declined and the number of unemployment insurance claims declined.

The high number of claims every week since the stimulus was enacted, is one of several indicators of continued severe weakness in the economy, and the failure of current policies of massive borrowing, spending and expanding government intervention in the economy.

The current level of weekly jobless claims is inconsistent with a growing economy and predicts higher long term unemployment in the future.