A new Washington-Post ABC News poll today indicates that 70 percent of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy and his approval rating remains at an all-time low (33 percent). Only 28 percent approve of his handling of the economy - a double digit decline from a year ago.
The governing failures of the Bush Administration are nothing less than historic. President Bush's economic agenda has effectively reversed the robust and sustained economic growth of the 1990s under President Clinton. His dismal economic record can be partly explained by poor policy choices -- unaffordable tax cuts, uncontrolled spending on the Iraq war, excessive deregulation, weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalization –- as well as by the failure of political conservatives to understand and capitalize upon the United States’ role in the new global economy.
The silver lining of the current economic downturn is that American voters gain a rare glimpse into the machinations of the U.S. economy and a chance to demand that our leaders address the consequences of Bush's mismanagement of the economy - the recession, financial crisis, and the ongoing struggle of the middle class.
Now is the time for American voters and our nation’s leaders to work together to develop and ultimately implement a new, comprehensive economic agenda that makes globalization work for all Americans. Such an agenda includes strategies that are independent of each other, but coordinated and comprehensive in scope, and which address the struggles of the middle class, the recession, and the financial crisis. This is a difficult challenge, but the Presidential candidate who can present a vision to transform our economy into one that includes all Americans while strengthening our economic ties with the world’s nations is the candidate who will win.
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