Contact: Bob Weiner or Richard Bangs 301-283-0821 or 202-329-1700

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/USNewswire/ -- "Before we get all exited over the 'record' high of the stock market today, let's remember it's taken nearly SEVEN YEARS since the previous January 14, 2000 high under Clinton to get here, AND total inflation of some 20 percent since then would actually require a high over 2000 points higher still to be truly equal, national Democratic strategist Bob Weiner asserted today. Weiner was a senior public affairs spokesman for 6 1/2 years in the Clinton White House and 14 years on Capitol Hill before that with Congressmen Conyers, Rangel, Pepper, and Koch."

Weiner said, "As we consider today's record, it's time to start straightening out the facts. Today the Dow reached a record for the Bush administration. Scratching and clawing to achieve this milestone almost seven years after the earlier record is not an achievement but a failure. We must be wary of celebrating these marks as major achievements especially when inflation rates are considered."

"With an average annual inflation of 2.575 percent over the past six years and a compounded inflation of some 20 percent, the records are a reflection of a failed economic policy of draining productivity and earnings power from lower and middle classes by the disproportionate tax cuts for the wealthy. Trickle down has not worked since Herbert Hoover tried it," Weiner said.

Weiner stated that many numbers have been thrown around, so he contacted Dow Jones Public Affairs and Dow Jones Data Request Group who reported to Weiner that the intra-day and close records were both set January 14, 2000. Close record: 11,722.98. Intra- day record: 11,750.28.

"Today's long-drawn out tie with seven years ago, even without factoring in inflation, also demonstrates the fraud of the Administration's proposed Social Security privatization policy of basing pensions on major-stock group 401 K's. Seniors cannot wait seven years to start making money with their money, even forgetting inflation."

"Another area of concern is with the creation of new jobs. During the Clinton administration, the job growth rate was 23 million new jobs in eight years. In nearly six years, the Bush administration has created two million jobs, just barely more than a sixth of what the Clinton administration achieved, when the numbers take into account that two million jobs were lost between 2001-2002, when Bush first launched his tax policies."

Weiner concluded, "Today's 'milestones' are at best a modest achievement and in reality a sad statement of a slow return to prosperity, delayed and not assisted by current Administration economic policies."

Source: Robert Weiner Associates 301-283-0821/202-329-1700

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