Bush And The Bushites Helped Cause This Economic Disaster
Last month, Bush was still bragging about how well the economy was doing. This month he's singing a somewhat different tune.
On Friday, I wrote about George the Shrub's flawed "plan" to stimulate the economy and stated, "Bush, of course, makes certain these are tax rebates to corporate cronies who have already made out like bandits. His rebates for "individuals" undoubtedly will be targeted disproportionately to his have's and have more's, not the don't have's who need it.
"Bush and his lackeys caused this economic disaster with his invasion and occupation of Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy 2% and other disastrous policies. So the American people are supposed to trust them with a solution? Fat chance." (Scroll down to read the entire post.)
How bad is the economic catastrophe Bush and his Republican flunkies have wreaked on this nation? From eminent economist, Joseph Stiglitz's, article last month in Vanity Fair, "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush," comes this startling paragraph:
"When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page."
Some of what Bush has inflicted on the country includes: "a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a national debt that will probably have grown 70 percent by the time this president leaves Washington; a swelling cascade of mortgage defaults; a record near-$850 billion trade deficit; oil prices that are higher than they have ever been; and a dollar so weak that for an American to buy a cup of coffee in London or Paris—or even the Yukon—becomes a venture in high finance."
Did King George the Lesser try and build on the budget surplus he inherited from the Clinton administration and keep priming the pump by spending, for example, to update aging infrastructure throughout the nation, like on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last year? Perish the thought!
As Stiglitz reports, "The first major economic initiative pursued by the president was a massive tax cut for the rich, enacted in June of 2001. Those with incomes over a million got a tax cut of $18,000—more than 30 times larger than the cut received by the average American. The inequities were compounded by a second tax cut, in 2003, this one skewed even more heavily toward the rich. Together these tax cuts, when fully implemented and if made permanent, mean that in 2012 the average reduction for an American in the bottom 20 percent will be a scant $45, while those with incomes of more than $1 million will see their tax bills reduced by an average of $162,000.
"The administration crows that the economy grew—by some 16 percent—during its first six years, but the growth helped mainly people who had no need of any help, and failed to help those who need plenty. A rising tide lifted all yachts. Inequality is now widening in America, and at a rate not seen in three-quarters of a century. A young male in his 30s today has an income, adjusted for inflation, that is 12 percent less than what his father was making 30 years ago."
Stiglitz continues, "Think of the interest we are paying, year after year, on the almost $4 trillion of increased debt burden—even at 5 percent, that’s an annual payment of $200 billion, two Iraq wars a year forever. Think of the taxes that future governments will have to levy to repay even a fraction of the debt we have accumulated. And think of the widening divide between rich and poor in America, a phenomenon that goes beyond economics and speaks to the very future of the American Dream."
Bush and his Republican administration have inflicted a horrible economic disaster on this nation. They caused the catastrophe but we, our children, and possibly our grandchildren will be paying for it.
While we and our children pay for the economic disaster he and his cronies wreaked on us, Bush will be relaxing on the 100,000 acre ranch that he bought in Paraguay. Seems a coincidence that Paraguay is one of few countries that promised not to prosecute American troops or officials on war crime charges.
And impeachment is still off the table.
On Friday, I wrote about George the Shrub's flawed "plan" to stimulate the economy and stated, "Bush, of course, makes certain these are tax rebates to corporate cronies who have already made out like bandits. His rebates for "individuals" undoubtedly will be targeted disproportionately to his have's and have more's, not the don't have's who need it.
"Bush and his lackeys caused this economic disaster with his invasion and occupation of Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy 2% and other disastrous policies. So the American people are supposed to trust them with a solution? Fat chance." (Scroll down to read the entire post.)
How bad is the economic catastrophe Bush and his Republican flunkies have wreaked on this nation? From eminent economist, Joseph Stiglitz's, article last month in Vanity Fair, "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush," comes this startling paragraph:
"When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page."
Some of what Bush has inflicted on the country includes: "a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a national debt that will probably have grown 70 percent by the time this president leaves Washington; a swelling cascade of mortgage defaults; a record near-$850 billion trade deficit; oil prices that are higher than they have ever been; and a dollar so weak that for an American to buy a cup of coffee in London or Paris—or even the Yukon—becomes a venture in high finance."
Did King George the Lesser try and build on the budget surplus he inherited from the Clinton administration and keep priming the pump by spending, for example, to update aging infrastructure throughout the nation, like on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last year? Perish the thought!
As Stiglitz reports, "The first major economic initiative pursued by the president was a massive tax cut for the rich, enacted in June of 2001. Those with incomes over a million got a tax cut of $18,000—more than 30 times larger than the cut received by the average American. The inequities were compounded by a second tax cut, in 2003, this one skewed even more heavily toward the rich. Together these tax cuts, when fully implemented and if made permanent, mean that in 2012 the average reduction for an American in the bottom 20 percent will be a scant $45, while those with incomes of more than $1 million will see their tax bills reduced by an average of $162,000.
"The administration crows that the economy grew—by some 16 percent—during its first six years, but the growth helped mainly people who had no need of any help, and failed to help those who need plenty. A rising tide lifted all yachts. Inequality is now widening in America, and at a rate not seen in three-quarters of a century. A young male in his 30s today has an income, adjusted for inflation, that is 12 percent less than what his father was making 30 years ago."
Stiglitz continues, "Think of the interest we are paying, year after year, on the almost $4 trillion of increased debt burden—even at 5 percent, that’s an annual payment of $200 billion, two Iraq wars a year forever. Think of the taxes that future governments will have to levy to repay even a fraction of the debt we have accumulated. And think of the widening divide between rich and poor in America, a phenomenon that goes beyond economics and speaks to the very future of the American Dream."
Bush and his Republican administration have inflicted a horrible economic disaster on this nation. They caused the catastrophe but we, our children, and possibly our grandchildren will be paying for it.
While we and our children pay for the economic disaster he and his cronies wreaked on us, Bush will be relaxing on the 100,000 acre ranch that he bought in Paraguay. Seems a coincidence that Paraguay is one of few countries that promised not to prosecute American troops or officials on war crime charges.
And impeachment is still off the table.
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