A committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research has declared that the United States is in a recession, and has been in one since December 2007.

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity, measured by the job market, inflation-adjusted income, the total amount of goods and services produced by a country and other indicators. It begins when a country reaches a peak of economic activity and ends when the country reaches its trough. The period on the way up from the trough to the peak is known as an expansion.

The most recent peak was in December 2007, and the economy has been on the way down since then. Before December 2007, the American economy had been expanding since November 2001. In other words, the expansion had lasted for 73 months. The previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.

Here's the Bush administration from the last year:

- “We don’t believe we’re going to have a recession though.” [Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/30/08]

- “I think the experts will tell you we’re not in a recession.” [President Bush, 2/10/08]

- “The answer is, I don’t think we are in a recession right now.” [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 2/11/08]

– “First of all, we’re not in a recession.” [President Bush, 4/22/08]

– “The data are pretty clear that we are not in a recession.” [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 5/7/08]

- “I don’t think we are” in a recession. [Director of the National Economic Council Keith Hennesy, 6/3/08]

– “I think we have avoided a recession.” [White House Budget Director Jim Nussle, 7/31/08]

– “I don’t think anybody could tell you right now if we’re in a recession or not” [Dana Perino, 10/7/08]

Of course we've been in a recession since then maybe even longer than that but this government as a whole will say one thing while every other indicator says otherwise. This isn't just Bush and Co. so don't just settle all the blame on them even though they do deserve partial.

Another thing this episode points out is that our Government continues to LIE to us. Why do we even put up with these people? I don't understand why this continues and why people accept it. This isn't supposed to be the norm.

Now we have the robber whores Paulson and Bernanke robbing us of trillions and an even larger democratic majority in Congress to go along with a President. I'm not very optimistic based on past history regardless of which party is running the country.