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The Bush Administration's Record of Global Prosperity

President Bush's historic achievements in international economic and development policy have made few headlines but are on course to be one of the most ambitious and successful of any previous President. I recently traveled to several cities around the country talking to business leaders, state and local government officials, non-governmental organizations and university students and professors about the importance of this record. Understanding what the Administration has achieved frames the work that remains, and it will take a strong bipartisan effort to continue to execute this strategy, which builds prosperity and security at home and abroad.

The President set these policies early in the 2002 National Security Strategy, and we are well on our way to meeting these economic foreign policy goals. From revolutionizing development assistance to leveling the playing field for U.S. farmers, workers and businesses, and setting the conditions for an historic six years of domestic and global growth, this impressive track record has improved American livelihoods and the daily lives of the poor around the world. It has also made us more secure by integrating poor countries into the global economic system.

When President Bush took office, U.S. official development assistance (ODA) had stagnated at about $10 billion per year. The President, with the full support of Congress, launched the largest international development agenda since the Marshall Plan. We have increased ODA to over 230% of 2000 levels. Our funding for HIV/AIDS through PEPFAR - likely to exceed $18 billion over the initiative's first five years - is as much as the rest of the world's combined. The President recently called for Congress to reauthorize PEPFAR with $30 billion over the next five years and was instrumental in securing a commitment from the G8 to commit to $60 billion more at the Summit in Heiligendamm last summer.

The Administration has also brought new accountability to development assistance policies through what the President in 2002 called "a new compact for global development." This compact is implemented through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), established with strong bipartisan support in 2004, and built into our other aid programs. By supporting countries that rule justly, invest in people, and promote economic freedom, the MCC has sparked reforms in countries that want to qualify for its funding. This has created an "MCC effect," where reform happens before a dollar of aid is given. I have seen the transformative power of the MCC first hand in my travels to developing countries.

The Bush Administration has also matched rhetoric with action on its trade agenda. When the Administration began, the U.S. had two free trade agreements in force; now we have nine agreements with fourteen nations covering almost every continent. After an eight year absence, the President was again granted trade promotion authority by Congress, which the administration has used to secure numerous trade preference programs, like the Andean Trade Preferences Act. Four critical FTAs now await Congressional approval - Colombia, Korea, Peru, and Panama. Existing agreements have brought significant commercial benefits to the U.S: in 2006, exports to our FTA partner countries totaled approximately $442 billion -- 43 percent of all U.S. exports. Total U.S. exports have increased to over $1 trillion in the last year.

We are in an historic period of record global economic growth. It is important to understand this because it has given developing countries a critical stake in the international system. We know China and India have been growing rapidly, but this growth is broad and deep: from 2003-2006 Latin America grew at 4.6 percent, the Middle East 5.8 percent, Europe 1.7 percent, Asia 8.9 percent, even sub-Saharan Africa has grown at 5.6 percent

Constituting over 25% of global GDP, the U.S. is has been the engine of this dynamic pace. Despite having to address a recession, a terrorist attack of unprecedented scale, the bursting of the internet stock market bubble and dramatic increases in global energy prices, the U.S. economy under the Bush Administration has averaged nearly 3 percent over the past six years. At 1.2 percent of GDP, the budget deficit is now well below the 40-year average. The Administration's steady hand on the levers of international and domestic economic policy making, and the ingenuity and competitiveness of American workers and businesses, have resulted in adding 8.2 million jobs since August 2003; bringing unemployment to 4.5 percent year-end 2006, lower than the average of each of the past four decades, and the future of America's economy looks bright.

The Bush Administration has worked consistently over the last six years to bring the benefits of engagement with the United States and with the global economy to all regions of the world. Congress and the Administration need to continue to work together on a bipartisan basis on several key areas to ensure that global prosperity continues to spread, including fully funding the MCC and passing all four pending FTAs. Completing these tasks will continue dynamic U.S. global leadership at the most critical levels of foreign policy: improving the daily lives of billions of people across the globe, as well as improving our security here at home. This record of achievement is available for review, and speaks to the stewardship this Administration has undertaken in its tenure. It is a proud moment that we have returned to on the global stage.

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