Stop It, Klein

Ezra Klein is not making sense again. He posts this graph, and then says that this is Bush's fault. His commenters are even worse. One of them even says that conservatives would try to defend Bush by blaming these figures on illegal immigration. I responded in the comments:

Well, you could blame it on immigration, but you'd be wrong. It'd be better to say, simply, that there was a recession during those six years, which is why everyone was worse off. The recession had literally nothing to do with anything that George Bush did, since it began in 2001, before any of his policies took effect. Indeed, it may have already begun before he took office.

During recessions, pretty much everybody does badly. But recessions are harder on less educated, less skilled workers. On average, blacks have less education than whites in this country. So blacks did worse than whites, who are more educated as a group.

Plus, Clinton's welfare reform package -- which was passed on 1996 -- had a five-year limit for welfare coverage. 2001 is five years after 1996, so welfare benefits decreased or disappeared for a lot of people. And blacks as a group are more dependent on welfare programs than whites. Again... this had nothing at all to do with anything that George Bush did.

*Everything* isn't George W. Bush's fault. Or, if you think it is, you've got to do better than innuendo. What, precisely, did George W. Bush do to specifically make black people poorer?