point 1 says that growth figures from two months ago were marginally above what they had been for the last year... not saying much.
point 3 looked tried to look at deficits in a historical context by comparing this administration's record to the Reagan administration. Fine, we know that the Reagan administration was the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the country (and it required some painful and under appreciated belt tightneng by Bush Sr. (followed up by Clinton) to get the budget back into managable territory. In THAT context perhaps the Bush Jr. deficits look downright responsible.
(As a side not... there has been alot of discussion lately of W's position in history and how his presidency will be rated/viewed after the fact... I think that Bush SR is going to look a helluva lot better in retrospect than most people (myself included) gave him credit for at the time. He took over some difficult problems, and quietly did what it took to manuever some improvement. He will be viewed as a big success from both a fiscal and foreign policy standpoint... even if he DID seem like an uninspiring weenie at the time.)
|