Payroll jobs increased by 126,000 in October. While far preferable to further job losses, those job gains fall short of the 150,000 jobs a month necessary to prevent the slack in the labor market from worsening. Jobs remain 2.4 million below the level of March 2001 when the last recession began. This post-recession labor slump has now become the first (since the collection of monthly jobs data began in 1939) without a full recovery of jobs within 31 months of the start of a recession.

But there's another doctor's opinion. Reduced marginal tax rates will sustain the new economic-incentive structure for years to come. Lower taxes will keep on spurring new wealth and higher employment levels far longer than almost anyone dreams possible.

Long after Dubya is back on his ranch, Americans will be trying to recover from the mess he created.