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Friday, September 17, 2004 |
"SEND THIS TO A REPUBLICAN!"
FEATURED ARTICLES
- A BUMPER STICKER, It's Still the Economy, Stupid - Dump Bush in 2004
- A BLOG, http://itstheeconomy.blogspot.com
- A BOOK, by Paul Begala.
- A COMMENTARY (1 Year Old), Don Hazen, AlterNet.
- A COMMENTARY (Last Week from London), The London Observer
- A STATISTICS SET, The Hightower Lowdown
- THE BOTTOM LINE: The New Stagflation, by James Galbraith, Washington Monthly
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores.
Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base."
-- George W. Bush
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - September 17th
1984 -- Oil heir Gordon P. Getty, with a fortune of $4.1 billion dollars, was named the richest person in the US. There were a dozen billionaires in the US at the time. According to Bloomberg, during this 2004 Presidential campaign, nearly 4 times as many billionaires have contributed to Bush's candidacy than to Kerry's. Bush has received donations from a total of 131 billionaires including Bill Gates of Microsoft. John Kerry has received the backing of 31 billionaires. Donald Trump was one of six billionaires to give to both campaigns.
1997 -- The US House of Representatives voted themselves a $3,000 pay increase, the equivalent of a 2.3% raise on $133,600. It was termed a cost-of-living increase and was opposed by the Senate.
2001 -- President GW Bush declared that the US wants Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
2001 -- US markets opened and the Dow Jones fell 684 to 8,920. The Nasdaq fell 115 to 1,579.
2001 -- The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by .5% to 3%. The discount rate at 2.5% reached its lowest point level since 1959.
RHINO HERE:
While Dan Rather & his CBS News crew courageously (finally) fight the Battle of Bush's Military "Service," a huge portion of Americans are feeling the crunch of Bush's economic policies, which are based on the "Starve The Beast" theory, defined as...
"A government theory which seeks to cut taxes with the intent of using the reduced revenue as an excuse to drastically reduce the size and number of services offered by a government."
The neo-robber barons who navigate the shrub gang have taken this to new lows by driving the deficit to record heights. So today's blog provides a variety of information & talking points to remind your friends & relatives that... It's still the economy, Stupid!
A BUMPER STICKER
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Dump Bush in 2004
http://www.cafepress.com/irregulargoods.6141721
A BLOG
It's Still The Economy, Stupid (Blog)
http://itstheeconomy.blogspot.com
A BOOK
It's Still the Economy, Stupid: George W. Bush, the Gop's Ceo
by CNN Crossfire's Paul Begala. (Pub. Date: 11/1/2002, Simon & Schuster)
When he took office in 2001, George W. Bush inherited the strongest economy in American history. He inherited the largest federal budget surplus in American history -- and the prospect of paying off the entire national debt in just eight years. He inherited a strong dollar and sound fiscal policy. He inherited a nation whose economy was so strong that commentators who just a decade before were predicting American decline were now complaining about American dominance. And yet, Dubya blew it. Squandered everything he'd inherited from President Clinton. We thought if Junior was good at anything, it was inheriting things.
"It's Still the Economy, Stupid" is the story of how America's CEO -- our first MBA president -- has trashed our economy. Find it at your library or bookstore.
A COMMENTARY (1 Year Old)
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted May 16, 2003
The only accomplishment of President Bush's tax cut will be to stimulate more economic inequality.
We all remember the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid." It was made famous by political strategist James Carville, who hung it on a sign in Bill Clinton's Little Rock campaign office to keep everybody "on message" in the 1992 election. And it worked: President George Bush, soaring in polls after a victorious war against Iraq, was stunningly defeated because he was unable to effectively manage or spark a recession-battered economy stuck in a "jobless recovery." Today it's possible that history may repeat itself. Bush Jr. is in similar straits as his dad, soaring in polls after a victorious war against Iraq but unable to effectively manage or spark a recession-battered economy stuck in a jobless recovery. But where his "read my lips" father was famously forced to raise taxes, the son is stubbornly sticking to an extreme conservative mantra: Spend more money on the military while cutting taxes for the wealthy and running a huge budget deficit.
http://www.alternet.org/story/15917
A COMMENTARY (Last Week from London)
It's Still The Economy, Stupid
The economy has outstripped terrorism as main concern for American voters
Oliver Morgan, London Observer, August 8, 2004
The American election is about terrorism, not the economy, right? The evidence so far suggests so: George W Bush and John Kerry have sought to persuade Americans that they are the 'safety-first' choice. Even economists themselves say the economy is not the key issue. 'Is the economy an election issue? No,' says Citigroup chief economist Robert DiClemente. 'It could have been. There were people who thought we would never see the job market recover at the beginning of this year. It has.' But could priorities be changing? Last week a Washington Post /ABC News poll showed 25 per cent of voters listed the economy as the most important issue, with 23 per cent saying Iraq and 20 per cent terrorism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1278405,00.html
A STATISTICS SET
It All Adds Up To A Sorry Story
The Numbers Tell The Tale Of The Bush Presidency
Edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer , The Hightower Lowdown, August 2004
Federal Deficit under Bush Administration: $2.3 trillion, through 2011
Federal Surplus when Bush took office: : $5.6 trillion, projected through 10 years.
2004 Deficit: $450 billion
Current federal debt: $7,298,671,067,464 and counting.
Average tax break for lower 60% of earners under Bush tax plan: $350
Average tax break for top 1% of earners under Bush tax plan: $96,634
Wages
Americans' average income growth from 2000-2002: -5.7%
Americans' average income growth, adjusted for inflation, 2000-2002: -9.2%
(First time since WW II that overall income shrank for two consecutive years)
CEO pay growth in 2003: +27%
Ratio of CEO to worker pay in 2003: 300 to 1
Ratio of CEO to worker pay in 1982: 42 to 1
Jobs
Number of jobs promised to come from Bush tax program: 5.5 million
Number of jobs lost since Bush took office: 1.2 million
Number of jobs created during Clinton administration: 21 million
Unemployment rate today: 5.6%
Unemployment rate when "recovery" began November, 2001: 5.6%
Trade
U.S. Trade deficit in 1999: $271 billion
U.S. Trade deficit in 2003: $549 billion
The War
2001 Defense Budget: $291 billion
2005 Defense Budget: $447 billion
2005 "Classified" Intelligence budget: $40 billion
U.S. KIA: 1000+
U.S. KIA since Bush announced "Mission Accomplished": 800+
U.S. wounded, Iraq & Afghanistan: 12,000+
MORE AT: http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/articles/Aug04_v6_n8/Aug04_v6_n8_1.cfm
7:55:17 AM 
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The New Stagflation
By James Galbraith, Washington Monthly, September 13, 2004
Editor's Note: This piece is from the Washington Monthly's series of 16 predictions on the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush.
Next year's economic difficulties are already on the horizon. Growth is slowing as the housing market cools and consumers rein in their spending. Inflation is rising a bit, driven mainly by oil prices, health care costs, and corporate price increases, fueling a spectacular recent profit surge. Job creation is weak, and wages are flat. This is the new stagflation - an unpleasant reminder of the economic cost of unilateral war.
But George W. Bush has never tried to fix the economy in the short term. His focus is on making long-term - and, he hopes, irreversible - changes to taxes and social programs; foreign policy; and the government's capacity to regulate the environment, natural resource use, and corporate behavior.
Bush's top economic priority has always been to cut taxes on the wealthy; as he famously said, the "have-mores" are his political base. The marginal income-tax rate, the estate tax, the tax on dividends, and the proceeds of the profits tax all fell sharply in his first term. His second term could finish the job, shifting the tax base to consumption, perhaps even abolishing the income tax for a value-added tax (as Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert now suggests). Virtually the whole tax burden will then fall on the middle class, on working Americans, and on the poor...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.alternet.org/election04/19851
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Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.
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All copyrights belong to original publisher.
7:02:30 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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