Republican "Time Stands Still" Argument is Still Fiction

Kristen Billy, again, brings Republican talking points to a whole new level of meaningless dribble.

Once again you ignore the middle and only look at the endpoint. We had a bad recession in 2002/2003 which was exacerbated by 9/11. We had an economic meltdown that was driven by the credit and housing bubbles. Hard to say it was the "worst 8 years". Sure you ignore all the jobs created during the middle of the period and just focus on one point in time at the end of the period. But I didn't expect much else from you since all you do is make partisan hack comments like blasting McCain for criticizing Obama's foreign policy. And making silly comments about Walker somehow being nice to the police because they supported him when actually the largest unions voted against him.

It would take a whole lot of effort to even pretend to be this misinformed.

This is a common tactic from Fox News viewers.  At the very mention or inclination that you might bring up George W. Bush they insist time stood still in 2007.  They insist that is where the Bush presidency should be measured.  Unless you're talking about Iraq, then they want it measured up to today but that's a different post.  Today we'll focus on Kristen's comments.

We all remember Kent at Right From Left when he tried to argue the very same thing.  Kent demanded that Bush not be held accountable for any economic losses because in 2007 the Dow reached an all time high.  From that day on, time stood still for Republicans.

Kristen is doing the same thing.  He's saying I'm only focusing on the end point (the bad times) and not the one year or two years where everything was moderately good.  Nothing could be further from the truth or from basic human understanding of what "8 years" means.

Just like with Kent's Fantasy World argument, Kristen is simply making stuff up. Nowhere do I only use the end point of Bush's two-terms.  It's the whole thing combined, the good and the bad.  Let's look at Bush's "8 years" and see what we get.

• From day 1 until his last day in office, the Dow lost 2,638.50 points.  That is the worst loss in any presidential tenure.  And he becomes only the second president to ever have the Dow lose points during his presidency.  Herbert Hoover is the other.

• During those 8 years, GDP also grew at it's slowest pace since the Great Depression.  Bush's total rate of GDP growth is 1.9%.  Again, the worst ever for a two-term president.

• The national debt went from $5 trillion to $11.9 trillion.  That is the largest monetary increase in the national debt in history.  In terms of percent, Reagan was the only other president to increase it more.

• Job growth, too, was disastrous.  In Bush's 8 years, the nation experienced a net job creation of 0%.  Again, the worst on record.

None of that is the end point.  I don't focus on "one point in time."  All of it is the totality of Bush's two terms.  We can't stop time in 2007 when GDP was in positive territory and job growth was moderate.  But that's exactly what Kristen wants us to do.  He wants to be able to say by counting all of Bush's 8 years in office that we are somehow leaving out years 5 and 6.  Not only is that an incredibly stupid argument to make, I feel stupid for even writing it.

If during your watch the Dow can lose more money than it ever has; GDP growth can be the worst for any two-term president; and you can add more than $6 trillion to the national debt; and have a net job creation of 0% and it not be the worst 8 years since the Great Depression, then Fantasy World doesn't even begin to describe your surroundings.

*Update:

There couldn't be any better summation of just how ridiculous and evasive Republicans get when you confront their make-believe world with actual facts than this or this.