547,267,000 months to be more or less exact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's how many months of work, of productivity, of income the American economy lost under George W. Bush, compared to the pace set by Bill Clinton. And we'll have another 20 million or so to add before he leaves office.
Under Bill Clinton, the US economy added 18,703,000 jobs in 96 months, for an average rate of 194,823 jobs added per month. Population growth alone required adding around 180,000 per month, so jobs increased faster than population by a modest amount.
Under George Bush, the US economy has added 6,507,000 jobs in 94 months, for an average of 69,223 jobs added per month--far below the growth rate required to keep up with population growth.
Here's a thousand words of what the difference looks like:
1 : Data affected by changes in population controls.
I simply took the monthly employment changes under Clinton, applied them to Bush's starting point, and took the difference between that pace and the actual levels under Bush.
That figure of 547,267,000 months is nearly two months for every American, from infant to centigenarian. About three months for everyone in the labor force. One quarter year out of eight. That's a whole lot of lost work, lost income, lost productivity, lost... opportunity, to use a word that Republicans love to think they own.
That measure of loss is also something else. It's a measure of how utterly mendacious our media are. Because if it were common knowledge how utterly wasteful Republican governance actually is, how much work, income, productivity, and opportunity Republican governance has cost us, no one would ever vote Republican again.
STATE BLOGS
