FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 1, 2006 8:00 AM State of the Union 2006: By the Numbers WASHINGTON - February 1 - ON INCOMES: --Inflation-adjusted average CEO pay at depth of recession in 2002: $7,773,000 --Average CEO pay as of 2004: $9,600,000 --Increase in productivity for 2005: +13.5 percent --Percentage increase in average American CEO’s compensation since 2002: +24 percent --Inflation-adjusted median household income in 2000: $46,058 --Median household income in 2004: $44,389 --Decrease in median income from 2000-2004 in White households: $1,066 --Decrease in median income from 2000-2004 in Hispanic households: $2,141 --Decrease in median income from 2000-2004 in Black households: $2,407 ON JOBS: --American manufacturing jobs in 2001: 17,101,000 --American manufacturing jobs in 2005: 14,283,000 --Number of private sector jobs created since 2001 excluding those produced by increased military spending: -1,160,000 --Number of American manufacturing jobs lost since 2001: 2,818,000 --Average number of fewer hours per week parents have to spend with their kids today than 35 years ago: 22 --Percentage decrease in average American household income since 2000: -3 percent ON ENERGY: --Average price of a gallon of gasoline in 2000: $1.51 --Average price of a gallon of gasoline in 2005: $2.28 --Percentage increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline since 2000: +51 percent --Percentage increase in the price of a gallon of home heating oil since 2000: +94 percent --Average price of a gallon of home heating oil, Winter of 1999-2000: $1.24 --Projected price of a gallon of home heating oil, Winter of 2005-2006: $2.41 --Average increase in profits for oil companies in third quarter of 2005: +69 percent --Amount of subsidies provided to oil industry in 2005 energy bill: $6 billion ON HEALTH CARE: --Percentage of companies that provided health care to their employees in 2000: 69 percent --Percentage of companies that provided health care to their employees in 2005: 60 percent --Number of Americans without health insurance in 2000: 39,800,000 --Number of Americans without health insurance as of 2004: 45,800,000 --Percentage of companies that provided healthcare insurance to their employees as of 2005: 60 percent --Number of additional Americans without health insurance since 2000: 6,000,000 ON COLLEGE COSTS: --Average cost of yearly tuition at a 4-year public university in 2000: $7,020 --Average cost of yearly tuition at a 4-year public university in 2005: $10,982 --Average increase in yearly tuition costs for public university students since 2000: +$3,962 --Average loan burden a carried by student upon graduation as of 2003: $18,900 --Average increase families will pay in student loan interests due to Republican cuts in the 2006 education budget: $2,000 for students, $3,000 for parents ON RETIREMENT SECURITY: --Americans working in private sector who can rely on a defined pension as of 2004: 6 percent --Baby Boomers who believe they’re very prepared to meet living expenses of retirement as of 2005: 24 percent
Ahh, yes .....and yet with all of that sensationalism, the economy is growing and seems to be thriving quite well. How do you explain that? How do you also explain that some/most of those same issues have been touted over several of the past decades ...and all of it now shown to be nothing but sensationalist bullshit? Baron Max
What evidence do you have that our economy is doing well? I just made a list of reasons why our economy ISN'T doing well! Is the reason why you think it's doing well is because our president said so? The Great Almighty president Bush would never lie or deceive the american people, would he?
mikasa11, though I don't doubt you, you need to list your source or sources for those numbers. On an aside, when you hear bush talk about how many jobs have recently been created, he says nothing about the fact that he is trying to get congress to up the number of visas authorized by law for overseas workers to come to the U.S.A. and take more of the high-paying jobs that still exist here. He also does not tell you that the jobs being created (that he keeps harping about) are low-pay as compared to all the jobs his corporate buddies are out-sourcing to India and China. He also does not tell you that the reason he is continuing to allow open-borders with Mexico is because his corporate buddies like all the cheap labor coming to take all the newly-created low-paying jobs. Wake up America. You think the Abramoff scandal is an isolated event? Get real.
Yeah, I know. Any increase in our jobs and economy won't be for the average American, it'll be for the temporary (ha, more like legally permanent) illegal Mexicans. Hey look, we've created 100,000 new jobs this month! Too bad only 5,000 of them were for normals Americans. - N
