Today in the New York Times, Rachel L. Swarns yawns through the following lede as if she were reporting on the amount of old subway tokens not yet redeemed:

The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent – to 123,833 from 175,914 – between 2005 and 2007, Bush administration officials said on Tuesday.

A 30 percent drop in chronic homelessness — not bad for a period of certain financial catastrophe, is it? Not too shabby a legacy for an uncaring administration bent on global dominance at the expense of American well-being, huh? And make no mistake, this is the result of a Bush administration initiative. The “Housing First” policy was championed in 2005 by Bush appointee Philip F. Mangano, head of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The policy allows homeless people to stay in apartments rent-free while they find work. As they get on their feet they pay rent in rising increments.

Here’s how the Times strains to describe the implementation of the policy:

But the officials attribute much of the decline to the “housing first” strategy that has been promoted by the Bush administration and Congress and increasingly adopted across the country.

No matter how unwieldy the result, Swarns can’t let Bush have the credit for introducing the program. Here again:

Mr. Culhane said that Congress and the Bush administration has pushed local communities to focus on finding solutions . . .

Anyway, sorry I forgot the script. Never mind 50,000 fewer chronicly homeless Americans. The country is in ruins, on the verge of collapse due to the increasing gap between single mothers working two jobs and Bush’s rich oil friends. This is our time; this is our moment. Hope, change and all that jazz.