Captain's Quarters

Captain's Quarters: "Kerry's Economic Plan

John Kerry penned his economic plan for the pages of the Wall Street Journal, which made it available through Opinionjournal.com this morning (free registration required). The plan focuses on a series of targeted tax credits intended to bolster his standing among specific demographics, while promising class war on the top 2% of American earners -- who already pay over half of all revenues from income tax.

Kerry starts out by trying to convince his readers that the economic expansion currently under way, fueled by the Bush tax cuts, is the worst in 50 years by focusing on job growth. However, the expansion itself as measured by GDP (the normal measurement) actually is the best in 20 years, almost outstripping the Reagan expansion in 1984. Even job growth, a lagging indicator, has improved remarkably this year, although buffeted by a summer of skyrocketing energy prices. One reason that Kerry can claim job growth as a problem is a continued reliance on the payroll statistics rather than the household survey, which shows a major shift towards self-employment and small business start-ups, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll survey routinely underreports. That's the reason the unemployment rate has dropped to a level lower than the average during the Clinton administration.

But that's just the introduction.

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