As the election approaches, the Republicans see the disaster they have created in Iraq and are looking elsewhere to change the subject. They are best off finding another issue yet again after trying and failing to make the economy one that helps their cause. Here’s why: the housing market has slowed down, and debate continues about whether the next direction is up or further down. As businessweek.com noted:

“While the most bearish scenarios may be becoming increasingly unlikely, the housing market probably isn’t out of the woods yet. Even the most upbeat forecasts call for new-home construction to keep declining nearly as much as it already has so far.”

All this doesn’t seem to matter to some Republicans, who often lie and mislead about the economy. Here’s what George Will said on Sunday (via mediamatters.org):

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. You can have your opinion about whether the economy is doing well but objectively, again, the economy — 4.6 unemployment. Growth quarter after quarter over three percent. It is just objectively good.”

Using the word “objective” is very clever, George, but it only increases the falsehood of the claim when checked. Here’s the actual data about that “growth quarter after quarter,” from courier-journal.com:

“Economic growth slowed to a snail’s pace of 1.6 percent in the just-finished quarter — the most sluggish showing in more than three years, the Commerce Department reported yesterday in Washington.

The main culprit: a housing market that has turned sour. Investment in homebuilding was cut by the largest amount in 15 years.

“A downturn in the housing market packed a wicked punch for the U.S. economy … but it was not a knockout blow,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.”

The government, even after all this modest growth, is still running borrowing billions every year more than it takes in. War profiteering has continually embarrassed Halliburton-KBR, a company where Dick Cheney used to be the CEO. Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed, both closely connected to the Bush administration, turned government control of the gambling racket into a private tool of enrichment. Michigan’s economy has gotten worse as the U.S. auto industry continues to decline. George W. Bush has offered America stupid ideas like increased steel tariffs and farm subsidies and trying to dismantle Social Security and war for oil in Iraq, and they haven’t worked. Bush and the Republicans have done a lousy job on economic policy–growth rates for jobs, wages, the stock market and GDP are all at lower levels than under Bill Clinton–and hiring a guy from Goldman Sachs to try to make it all sound good doesn’t work this time, with such a lousy record to sell.