Democrats Don't Get Economy

The campaigning politicians apparently cannot talk accurately about the economy. As I am not campaigning for anything, let me try to describe the economy as it is.

The Democrats cannot talk accurately because if they did the average American would realize that the economy under President Bush has not been so bad. Furthermore, the Democrats don't have a clue as to how to improve it. All they would do with their promised tax increases and other extensions of the federal bludgeon onto the market would be to slow down an economy that is actually growing.

Did I say growing? Yes I did, but the Republicans cannot talk about the growing economy because if they did it would sound as though they had no compassion for those who are not doing particularly well in this economy. This is a rhetorical trick that the Democrats have imposed on the Republicans.

So effective has it been in cowing the Republicans that quite possibly never again will a sitting president be able to boast of a record of economic achievement. To do so would be to ignore the less well off, even though there will always be less well off. For that matter, in every economy no matter how robust, there will be citizens in difficulty.

Nonetheless, someone ought to note the economic health of the present economy. Let me give it a try.

Yes, with gasoline pushing $4 a gallon and fuel oil at historic highs as we face the winter, there is reason to be apprehensive. Moreover, there are widespread declines in home prices. Financial institutions are failing. The equity market is down. And inflation is inching up.

Yet that does not warrant describing this economy as being in a "depression," as Joe Stiglitz, the Clintonista, has said it is. Nor is it even in a recession, as the Prophet Obama and his amiable sidekick, Senator Biden, believe it to be.

In point of fact, we are living through the third longest peacetime expansion since 1857, which is about as far back as such calculations have been made. The growth continues. Last quarter's growth has now been revised upward to a healthy 3.3% from just below 2%. Milton Friedman calculated that real GDP grew at 3% since World War II, about the same as it has grown from the middle of the 19th century.

At present, the economy's growth is relatively healthy and its prospects are good. Sure catastrophe could strike, but it will have to be one whale of a catastrophe, say a big taxer in the White House surrounded by people with Saul Alinsky's vision of economics, which was socialism — assuming that the old radical had any economic vision at all.

Alinsky was the community organizer who inspired the Prophet. Incidentally, there is no evidence that Mr. Obama has had any managerial experience. Nor has he managed budgets of any size. Senator McCain managed the largest air squadron in the Navy with a budget of more than $1 billion. Governor Palin managed a small town and the state of Alaska.

So the economy is doing pretty well, though more can be expected and it is understandable that the citizenry does expect more. Since the beginning of the Reagan economic comeback, we have all lived through a period of unparalleled economic stability and vigor.

If the Bush administration was the third longest period of growth since 1857, the two longer periods were experienced in our lifetimes, in the Clinton administration, 120 months, and the Reagan administration, 92 months. It is natural that contemporary Americans expect more from their economy.

To expect it from the Prophet Obama, however, is a leap in faith and an investment in futility.

Mr. Tyrrell is the founder and editor in chief of the American Spectator, a contributing editor of The New York Sun, and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute.