(MSNBC)  Steve Benen, December 29, 2015 — The New York Times’ Paul Krugman posted a nice chart over the weekend, mocking Republican rhetoric about President Obama being a “job-killer.” It struck me as a little hard to read, so I recreated the image using the same data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s a pretty straightforward exercise: compare President Obama’s record on private-sector employment (the blue line) to private-sector employment during the Bush/Cheney era (red line). The x axis shows the months in office, and since President George W. Bush was in office for eight years, while Obama still has a year to go, the red line is longer.

Keep in mind, during the Bush/Cheney era, congressional Republicans – who eagerly approved two massive tax-cut packages – were certain the GOP economic agenda would work wonders. These same Republicans have spent the last seven years insisting that the Obama agenda would push the nation into economic ruin.

And yet, here we are. How do Republicans explain images like this one? How do GOP officials account for strong job growth in an era of “Obamacare,” higher taxes, and environmental protections? In general, the party prefers to either change the subject or throw around wild-eyed conspiracy theories.

Source: Obama’s ‘job-killing agenda’ continues to impress | MSNBC