Schooling Our Political Leaders On Economics

The Audacity of Economic Ignorance
Editorial
Investor's Business Daily
December 3, 2010

Economy:  Why do we seem so helpless in solving our current mess?  A big reason is the shocking lack of basic economic literacy among many of our political leaders.  Case in point:  Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Brown ripped into GOP Rep. Eric Cantor, saying he "either failed English class or failed logic class or failed history class because these tax cuts for the rich that Bush did twice ... resulted in very little economic growth.  We saw only 1 million jobs created in the Bush years, 22 million created in the Clinton years, when we reached a balanced budget with a fairer tax system."

This is false.  From 2002, the last year before the cuts, to 2007, the last year before the financial meltdown, the real economy expanded by $1.77 trillion, or 15.2%.  "Very little" growth?  Jobs increased by 7.77 million, business investment surged 38%, and personal net worth soared 56%.  Brown is wrong on every point.
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