This one was the most recent (1/13/06) from the old blog format...


Bush has to deal with a bigger deficit than he planned!
Of course, this assumes that he actually plans anything...

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - The White House acknowledged on Thursday that the budget deficit would climb back above $400 billion this year, erasing the brief improvement last year and complicating President Bush's vow to cut the deficit in half by 2009."

Most of the extra deficit is due to spending on Hurricane Katrina, and something DOES need to be done to bring the budget in line, but the Republicans are cutting back on programs that serve the poor and middle-class. In the meantime, they want to make the tax cuts permanent for people like Paris Hilton, Michael Eisner, and Bill Gates. Also recently announced is that the Iraq War is projected to end up costing US, the taxpayers, about ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!! (This will include caring for all the veterans who got wounded, assuming BushCo doesn't do away with the VA altogether. He's working on it...)

Relying on trickle-down economics, where the rich get taxcuts, and are then inspired to create good-paying jobs doesn't work. See the Reagan economy for proof. What, in my opinion, would turn the economy around, is government provided healthcare. Then, companies don't have to spend profits on providing coverage, and employees actually make a living wage. America is the ONLY industrialized nation that doesn't have national health coverage, but yet we complain about jobs going overseas and wonder why. Job gurus speak about the next boom in jobs being in the service industries, which is techno-babble for retail, restaurant, and custodial help, jobs that Americans don't want, and are happy to have filled by illegal aliens. Critics of universal healthcare use scare tactics, saying that it will bring a massive, wasteful government bureaucracy, and they point to Medicare and Social Security. However, in fact, Medicare and Social Security use only 1 or 2% of their budgets in operating costs, the rest goes to benefits. Contrast that with outfits like Blue Cross or Aetna, where over half goes to administrative costs!

Taxcuts sound like a good idea to me, too, but how much of those cuts actually make their way back into our working class pockets? Ask yourself that question, and answer it honestly. Don't forget to figure in the state and local tax increases as a result of less federal spending. Ask yourself who really benefits from BushCo's policies, which pander to corporations and the wealthy who run them. Hey, if you think you've got enough trickling down to your wallet, good for you! If you're like most folks who actually work for a living, I tend to doubt that you feel like you're better off. If you want to be a moron and vote AGAINST your own wallet/best interests, go ahead. Freedom also means you can be stupid, unfortunately.