Turnabout's fair play: Mississippians, are you better off than you were 8 years ago?

Back on August 26th, former Gov. Haley Barbour (R) went on CBS's Face the Nation and, seeking to focus the American electorate on the economy, asked the question "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

Glad you brought that up, Governor.


I've blogged before about how Mississippi's economy did its best impression of roadkill during the Barbour administration, but now we have some "new" news. Yesterday, State Economist Daniel Webb announced to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that Mississippi was once again in a recession. And our jobs numbers are so bad that we won't see pre-recession employment levels again until at least 2018.

2018.

Webb went on to tell us exactly why we're sucking hind teat on economic matters, and of course the reasons are things about which we're already well aware:

Webb says Mississippi's economy continues to struggle because of low levels of education, poor health and a high number of births outside marriage.

Now if we could just elect leaders who would actually do something about those three things instead of guys who will proclaim victory over decades of poverty after opening a car plant (see Haley & Toyota-Blue Springs) or guys who sue to stop healthcare reform (see Phil Bryant).