George Will sticks a pesky truth stick in the eyes of liberals and they balk, but the fact is by way of comparison, these ARE good times economically.

“Early in George W. Bush’s presidency, liberal critics said: The economy is not growing. Which was true. He inherited the debris of the 1990s’ irrational exuberances. A brief (eight months) and mild (the mildest since World War II) recession began in March 2001, before any of his policies were implemented. It ended in November 2001.

In 2002, when his tax cuts kicked in and the economy began 65 months — so far — of uninterrupted growth, critics said: But it is a “jobless recovery.” When the unemployment rate steadily declined — today it is 4.5 percent; time was, 6 percent was considered full employment — critics said: Well, all right, the economy is growing and creating jobs and wealth, but the wealth is not being distributed in accordance with the laws of God or Nature or liberalism or something.”

Ah quoting the fact that drive them on the left mad George. Fact is that in every instance of “rebuttal”, including certain out of work so-called freelancers, the myth of the Clintonian economy was rehashed.

Now mind you, it wasn’t that bad, at least after 1994 when the GOP took congress. Before that Clinton floundered in economic waters like a dead fish. As Investors Business Daily story covered in 2004, “Republicans pushed Clinton to sign on to welfare reform, capital gains tax cuts and spending curbs that produced a booming economy and balanced budget. They kept him from raising taxes, as he did in 1993, when his record tax hike nearly sank the economy. They also kept him from signing the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.”

All moves that stimulated economic growth through the 90s, although there was a price to pay was we found out with the LTCM collapse, Enron and Worldcom scandals.

Liberals have always had a problem with accounting history. Such as when they blame Reagan for hugh budget deficiets when in fact Reagan had to work with a Democrat controlled Congress whose spending rose 50 percent faster than tax collections. That will always lead to the red.

Back in 2003, National Review’s Rich Lowry covered much of the ground containing myth of the Clinton Economy, and it’s worth another read for good background.