The Labor Department reported today the American economy created 308,000 new jobs last month, a seemingly welcome sign in an otherwise abysmal three-year record of job losses. But the Bush administration should hold the champagne. Economists estimate the labor market still falls short by 2 to 5 million jobs. The administration promised its massive tax cut agenda would fuel job growth. Measured by its own standard, President Bush has failed on his key economic promise, delivering millions of job losses rather than gains.
- The Bush administration has failed to deliver on its promise of millions of new jobs. The administration projected that employment would grow by a total of 5.5 million jobs between July 2003 and the end of 2004, with 1.4 million of these jobs a direct result of the latest tax cut proposal. By March 2004, the economy was still down more than 2 million jobs – jobs the administration projected would be created by now.
- By any historical standard, the economy needs 2 to 5 million new jobs to fully emerge from the recession. A few months of modest employment growth has not fixed the severe job shortage in the economy. It will take substantially faster employment growth and time before the job loss recovery ends and the labor market returns to normal status. Given the administration’s obsession with tax cuts, this is an unlikely scenario.
- More tax cuts for the wealthy will not accelerate job growth and will only plunge the nation deeper into debt. The administration’s tax cuts have failed thus far to create adequate job growth. The promise of new and permanently extended tax cuts will only make matters worse. As history proves, tax cuts concentrated on the top 2 percent of earners never trickle down into significant job opportunities for the middle class. They will, however, contribute to a massive budget hole – now projected to total $5 trillion over the next 10 years – middle class Americans will pay off for decades.
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