The Bush Boomlet

TO listen to the Kerry Democrats, this year’s presidential race is going to be all about Bush’s mishandling of the economy. In January, John Kerry charged, “This is the worst job performance since Herbert Hoover was president.” A liberal attack ad ridiculed the president’s tax cuts for creating jobs and businesses—in China. The left-wing MoveOn.org chimed in with the suggestion that if the budget deficit kept rising, we would soon need to bring back child labor in order to pay the bills.

Amazingly, no one has been more infected by this culture of despair than the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Their defensive posture on the economy was exhibited most recently when they gave up the fight to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. One GOP leader, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, reflected the gloomy attitude of too many of his Republican colleagues: “We would be foolish to extend all the tax cuts now.”