Paul Krugman, "Partisan Growth Gaps": At What Cost?

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Arguing in his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Partisan Growth Gaps" that Democrats have historically done a better job than Republicans at creating jobs, Paul Krugman compares Obama with George W. Bush:

"But isn’t the story different for the Obama years? Not as much as you think. Yes, the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 has been sluggish. Even so, the Obama record compares favorably on a number of indicators with that of George W. Bush. In particular, despite all the talk about job-killing policies, private-sector employment is eight million higher than it was when Barack Obama took office, twice the job gains achieved under his predecessor before the recession struck."

Fascinating. But what about judging Obama's economic record by his own standards? On July 3, 2008, Obama declared:

"The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents - #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic."

Well, US national debt has now reached an unsustainable $18.4 trillion, amounting to more than $57,000 for every American man, woman and child. Yes, America is bankrupt, but no one cares to admit it. "Private-sector employment is eight million higher than it was when Barack Obama took office"? Indeed, but at what cost?