The Truth about GDP Growth

Those who follow the economy know that it is currently undergoing a rebound that is far beyond anyone's expectations. It is vitally important to the Republicans that they lie hard and fast enough about this fact to keep American voters deluded until the November elections.

I quoted a grand champion example of this contemptible behavior in a Wingnut Wrapup a couple of days ago, but my wife thought my explanation was not clear at all. I think this issue is important enough to revisit it.

Here is the quote, from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. I wish I could tell you he was one of the worst of the liars in the wingnut web world, but he's not- he's just pathetically average:

"After GDP Drops 2.5% in One Quarter… Obama Says “We’re Heading in Right Direction. The gross domestic product just dropped from 5.7% to 3.2% in one quarter. Obama says we’re heading in the right direction?"

Now, before I tear this disgusting liar a new one, lets get a few real facts in here. Here is a chart of GDP growth since the first quarter of 2007:
















Now, here is Green Eagle's simple explanation of the above data. Any person capable of understanding reality knows that the true mission of the Bush administration was to thieve our country's entire wealth, and leave the economy to utterly collapse as soon as they left office, so they could (as usual) stick the job of fixing their damage on the Democrats, while they stood on the sidelines, refusing to cooperate in any way, and screaming at the top of their voices that it was all the Democrats' fault.

Of course, being as incompetent as they are corrupt, they didn't quite calculate things correctly, and the whole thing fell apart before they could jump on their horses (in Bush's case, his bicycle, being as how he's the only cowboy in recorded human history that's afraid of horses) and ride off into the sunset.

So here we have it. The economy, at the time that Obama became president, was in the process of collapsing into a total depression, brought to you by the same Republican greed that brought us the one in 1929. Exactly one thing prevented us from ending up in the same state the country was in by 1933: That time, the Republicans had from October 1929 until March 1933, when Roosevelt became president, to screw things up just as badly as they could. This time, thank the lord, Democrats were able to take over and stop the Republican damage within months of the time that the real collapse began.

Now, let's get to Jim Hoft's at once pathetic and vicious lies. Here is what he said:

"The gross domestic product just dropped from 5.7% to 3.2% in one quarter."

Wait a minute- our GDP is not a percent- it's a dollar amount. What could this guy be talking about?

First the truth. From the Department of Commerce:

"Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010"

Yes indeed, the gross domestic product did not drop this quarter. In fact, it increased at a rate of 3.2%- a healthy rate considering the damage done to the economy by the Bush Administration, and more that Bush and Cheney were able to achieve in the last five quarters of their miserable regime.

To be absolutely specific about this, the Gross Domestic Product of the United States, according to the Department of Labor, was $13,254.7 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2010, compared to S13,149.5 billion in the last quarter of 2009, a fact that it took me about three minutes to find out, by googling "gdp 2009."

The rate of increase did drop compared to quarter 4, 2009, but over 3% of the 5.7% of the rate of growth in that quarter was attributable to industrial restocking as companies began to see the light at the end of the Bush economic tunnel.

Jim Hoft just lied, because things are not going the way he wants them to- that is to say, that the entire country should suffer so he and his rotten friends can get their hands back on the country's wealth. In fact, within months of the start of the Obama presidency the economy turned around and began to heal. There is exactly one reason why the healing process has been so slow: the destruction wrought on all of us by Republican economic lies was far greater than anyone wants to admit.

And the lies continue. Sadly, they will never stop- the truth is not kind to Republicans.

Comments

magpie said…
I got curious and checked this loser out...

One of his posts re the oil rig disaster is titled "Rush Limbaugh: Obama probably thinks Tea Party Blew Up the Rig".

It's a very neat illustration of his side operate: They swallow the mental vomit of one of their own, like Limbaugh, and then regurgitate it as if someone else thought up that idiotic idea instead of themselves.

Project Project Project.....!

"Liberals never take responsibility for their actions" "A Democrat administration cannot handle a disaster situation" "Obama is in bed with bankers and mega-rich manipulators"
and so on....

You're fighting the good fight here Mr Eagle. Keep it up.
Green Eagle said…
Thanks, Magpie. Their sickness never ends, and even now, the great majority of people want desperately to pretend that it is just meaningless bluster, and so they avert their eyes to the torrent of hatred and violence that is just beneath the surface. I've been watching them for forty years, and I am really concerned about where this is going. People who have known me for a couple of decades know that up until this point I have correctly predicted where this is headed. I just hope I'm really wrong about what it is going to turn into over the next couple of decades.

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