What a difference a week makes, especially when it comes to the rollercoaster American economy. No where is the impact of looming recession and the near-meltdown on Wall Street clearer than on the White House web site. Just days ago, the site boasted about President Bush's glorious stewardship of the U.S. economy. Now, the White House's economy web page reflects the mad scramble to ward off the twin crises of the housing market and the financial system.

A cached version of the White House web site from March 16, 2008 showed the last vestiges of rosy optimism and unbridled Bush boosterism. (The Google cache has since been updated, but as of this writing MSN still has a version from March 8, 2008.) In the upper left hand corner, an elegant animation proclaimed "President Bush's actions are moving our economy forward," "18,000 jobs created in December 2007," "Over 8.3 million new jobs created since August 2003" and "Unemployment rate remains low at 5%."
The usual fuzzy math was there as well, cynically designed as always to sell making President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy permanent:

"The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are set to expire in less than three years. If Congress allows that to happen, 116 million taxpayers will see their taxes go up by $1,800 on average."

Some signs of the downturn were already present as well. Bush's disastrous appearance last week before the Economic Club of New York was front and center. And a run down of the steps being taken to confront the imploding housing market were highlighted as well.
But four days later, the main White House economy web page has gotten an emergency face-lift. The eye-catching animation crowing about Bush leading the economy forward is gone. After the U.S. shed 63,000 jobs in February and new jobless claims this week jumped by 22,000, the text about past job creation became history. And even the verbiage about making the tax cuts permanent has been deleted. And just days after the Federal Reserve intervened with its massive Bear Stearns bailout to halt the building Wall Street panic, the White House web site proclaims:

"The President remains deeply concerned about the housing issue and strongly believes that any government policies must be responsible. Government actions often have far-reaching and unintended consequences. Any time the government intervenes in the market, it must do so with clear purpose and great care."

Of course, this isn't the only recent revision to President Bush's online record on the economy and the budget. On its FY 2007 budget page, the White House crowed about its $163 billion in red ink supposedly meeting President Bush's bogus 2004 promise to halve the federal budget deficit:

"The deficit has been cut in half three years ahead of the President's 2009 goal. Historic revenue growth and a continued commitment to spending restraint contributed to this reduction."

But with Bush's FY 2009 budget projected to produce a deficit nearing $400 billion, that proud talk too has vanished.
Ignoring the February job losses announced the previous week, President Bush in New York still insisted that that "after 52 consecutive months of job growth, which is a record, our economy obviously is going through a tough time." No longer operative, that claim is destined for the virtual cutting room floor, just like this White House classic from December 2005:

"Unemployment rates are below the averages of the 70's, 80's and 90's."