Ya' can't fix stupid

This today from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post:

Gavyn Davies of the Financial Times pegs it at about $6 trillion in lost output, even if the U.S. economy grows at 3.8 percent clip between now and 2016 (which is an awfully sunny forecast):

“GDP will remain far below potential for several more years, and the unemployment rate will remain considerably above the structural unemployment rate. Put simply, there will be a massive further wastage of economic resources. A rough calculation suggests that the cumulative loss of GDP from the Great Recession of 2007-16 will amount to $5,900 billion, of which about $2,200 billion is still to come in the next five years.”

The U.S. Commerce Department will release its report on third-quarter GDP on Thursday.

So Presidential elections matter. Said another way, the full cost of electing the incompetent George W. Bush to the Presidency (twice) is almost $6 trillion in future lost output. Please remember that the next time you go in the voting booth. As comedian Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid", (Warning: Video R Rated) and many among the current GOP crop are, well, less competent than they need to be. To put it mildly.