The Bush economy lives on for the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County:

One in five Los Angeles County residents — nearly 2.2 million people — are receiving public assistance payments or benefits, a level county officials say will rise significantly over the coming months as the fallout from the recession continues.

The percentage of people on county aid already equals the figure at the height of the 2001-03 recession and far exceeds the one in seven who needed help during the economic downturn in the early 1990s and the one in nine assisted in the collapse of the early 1980s.

Unemployment stands at 9.5 percent, which means that one in 10 county residents are out of work. This is about the same level the county experienced during the first Bush recession in the early 1990s.