The Great Bush Economy is Falling Apart

Even his Wealthy Base may not be happy!

Published on June 6, 2006 By COL Gene In Politics

For some time I have pointed out that the economic growth that Bush has been claiming credit for is a mirage to the vast majority of Americans. Bush points to higher GDP, the stock market and healthy corporate profits. To the average American they see a DROP in Average weekly wage during the past two years and NO growth in the past five years. They now are faced with skyrocketing energy costs that are now showing up is sluggish sales at lower end stores. However the high end stores are doing a booming business because the wealthy are the only group that is not impacted by the higher energy prices.

Now the stock market is down over 600 points, and inflation is beginning to be a problem. There is an indication that the Fed will counter the inflation with even higher interest rates and the real estate market is cooling. Mortgage brokers have been lying off staff and the few bright lights that Bush has been pointing to are dimming. Projections for GDP growth for the balance of the year is much lower and consumer confidence has taken a nose dive.

All this with a Federal Budget Deficit in the $600 Billion per year range and the prospects for the future that is troubling at best. Airlines are in trouble, independent truckers are having real problems because of the higher fuel costs and the U S Auto makers continue to slide. The trade deficit is over $800 Billion with no prospect for a solution. Hanging over all the Bush policies is the disaster called Iraq.

Like so many issues with this administration, the consequences of the policies we have been following are coming to light. In time both the wealthy and not so wealthy Americans will understand what mistakes were made in the elections starting with 2000!

Comments (Page 4)

bakerstreet

on Jun 07, 2006

LOL... I didn't ask you about the budget, Col.

I asked you about the issues you are talking about on THIS blog. What do you propose to do to correct the lower average wage, the trade deficit, etc.? Nice dodge, but you can't possibly be claiming that raising taxes will raise the average wage or help with the trade deficit, are you?

In reality, higher taxes will leave less profits and less chance of new jobs, fewer benefits, and much less chance that our prices will be low enough to compete with nations like China. If you want for this blog to be even slightly persuasive to anyone but a Bush-hater like yourself, you should offer them solid reasons why Bush is to blame for all this, instead of just using the word "policies" like that means something.

Surely you wouldn't be maybe stretching things a bit, like you did with the average wages. Surely you don't already know that anything you can point to could be traced by even an unbiased person to problems that were there before Bush took office, and which no President has the ability to wave their hand and fix?

COL Gene

on Jun 07, 2006

Bakerstreet

You are the one that brought up the deficit on your last post. The thing that will impact profits is spending not providing the wealthiest 1% more money by eliminating the estate tax. We would get more economic bang by balancing the budget, reducing the annual interest and use that money to meet the needs of this country.

Bush has created the Annual Deficit. When he took office we had a balanced budget which he immediately turned into a deficit by cutting taxes and increasing spending. This is the same thing Reagan did with the very same result. Bush did not learn. He also did not listen to his father who called the economics of Reagan and the same policy we are following today- Voodoo economics which is good description of the tax ands spend policies Bush and the GOP are following!!

bakerstreet

on Jun 07, 2006

"We would get more economic bang by balancing the budget, reducing the annual interest and use that money to meet the needs of this country."

Wait... wait, wait.

Don't rush through it. Please explain to me how a balanced governmental budget helps raise wages and balance the trade deficit? Pretend I am stupid, and just talk me through how raising taxes to balance the government's budget will lead to higher wages, more benefits, and more equitable trade with other countries.

Above, in your own blog, you blame Bush's policies for those problems. Please, if you will, point out what Bush has done to cause them and what Bush could do to fix them. I think anyone would have to be deranged to think that the estate tax helps when it draws capital out of the hands of the people who pay wages and set our prices.

I don't believe you've offered any suggestion about what to do about the economy, you just point to balancing the federal budget. Please, tell us what Bush should have been doing to create a higher average "weekly" wage, etc.

"You are the one that brought up the deficit on your last post."

Only because on one blog you are stating problems that you are trying to worsen on another.

You claim that the budget should be balanced by taxing the wealthy. Less profit means lower wages, fewer benefits, and higher prices that make us less competitive internationally, worsening the trade deficit. Which do you want, to better the economy, or feed the leech that is bleeding it?

Daiwa

on Jun 07, 2006

Col Gene -

My income in actual (gross) dollars is the same as it was in 1980. But the current value of a 1980 dollar is about $2. So, I'm effectively earning half what I was making 26 years ago. And my standard of living has never been better.

You've yet to see the forest for the trees.

COL Gene

on Jun 08, 2006

Bakerstreet

The impact of the continued deficit is that we must increase the amount of tax dollars that go to the ever increasing interest payments. Those interest payments go to two groups-- American investors which are heavily made up of the high income Americans and only a small amount of that interest ends up as spending by the wealthy recipients. 40% of the interest is paid to foreign bond holders and that money leaves the country entirely and detracts from our economy. It is not spent in America and thus does not stimulate American economic activity. In addition as the interest sours, it will either require higher taxes to pay the added interest or will take money from things that we will need to fund. Things like Social Security, Medicare, Homeland defense etc. By eliminating the revenue from the Estate Tax we added to the deficit and ADD to the interest we must pay on the increased debt.

IT IS REMARKABLE HOW YOU BUSHIES CAN IGNORE WHAT BUSH AND THE GOP FISCAL POLICY IS DOING TO THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY! Every year the taxpayers MUST pay hundreds of Billions more in interest because we would not pay for what we spent! In 1980 before Reagan the taxpayers were spending about $90 Billion per year on interest. After the two applications of Supply Side (Voodoo) Economics that interest is heading to $500 Billion EVERY YEAR. That is MORE then we spend on National Defense excluding the Iraq War! That interest NEVER ENDS until the debt is repaid which under the Bush Fiscal Policy will NEVER happen. In fact his goal is to only reduce the Annual Budget deficit to 1/2 its current level so that the $500 Billion in interest will get even bigger AFTER he retires to Texas. The interest in just TWO YEARS would save $1 Trillion dollars which is estimated to be enough to rebuild the entire aging Infrastructure in this country. $500 Billion per year would SOLVE the funding issues for BOTH Medicare and Social Security for the Baby Boomers with money to spare. Everything facing us will be far more difficult because Reagan and Bush refused to act responsibly-- Simply PAY for whet we agreed to SPEND each year.

If the amounts were small it would be a philosophical issue. Because of the enormous size they are a VERY practical and will pose devastating consequences for the future of our country !!!!!!!!!!

Island Dog

on Jun 08, 2006

IT IS REMARKABLE HOW YOU BUSHIES CAN IGNORE WHAT BUSH AND THE GOP FISCAL POLICY IS DOING TO THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY!

And it's amazing how you ignore everything posted to you. You keep running in circles.

COL Gene

on Jun 08, 2006

When I document issues that face this country you say how have the Bush Policies created the issue. The issues I believe fall into three categories -

Issues that Bush inherited and he has been ineffective in making progress to solve

Issues that Bush inherited and he has made worse by the policies he is following with the help of the GOP in Congress.

New issues that Bush created and were not problems when he took office.

Examples of the first category are things like the Funding Issues of Social Security, Border Security, Energy, Education etc. There is not ONE of there and all other issues that faced Bush in Jan 2001 that he and the GOP in Congress have improved.

Examples of the second category would be things like Medicare funding. Bush not only has offered NO solution to this issue but he and the GOP in Congress pushed the Prescription Drug Plan that has made the funding issues of Medicare MUCH worse because Bush and Congress DID NOT FUND this new entitlement! Another example is border security. The rate of illegal workers coming into this country has increased and Bush has done NOTHING to enforce Border Security or to enforce the laws that require Employers to obey laws like collecting taxes from many illegal workers. Even though Bush acknowledged he did not have the needed man power he DID NOT requests the funding to provide the added staff the HE SAID WAS NEEDED!

Example of the third category is the return of the Annual Budget Deficit. The combination of the Tax cuts and increased spending that BOTH Bush and Congress approved turned a BALANCED Budget into the monster we have today. We attacked a country that posed NO danger to the United States and have sustained lose of life, casualties and what could end up being another Trillion Dollars of DEBT. In the past when we went to war we enacted a tax to help pay for the added cost of war. Not Bush and the GOP, they put it on the TAB so we can continue to pay the interest for God knows haw many more DECADES.

This just a SAMPLE of the impact that policies that Bush and his supporters in Congress have enacted on the people of this country! They will continue to plague us for MANY years after Bush leaves office!

COL Gene

on Jun 08, 2006

IslandDog

Not So. I answer you questions you do like my answer.

Island Dog

on Jun 08, 2006

Are you a socialist?

What percentage of income should successful Americans be taxed?

You never answer these questions. You other "answers" are you typical bs. I see you still don't get what Baker is telling you. One-sided democratic hack.

bakerstreet

on Jun 08, 2006

"The impact of the continued deficit is that we must increase the amount of tax dollars that go to the ever increasing interest payments."

Nope. That's like saying that I can go out and buy a new house that I can't afford, and then go to work and blame my boss for not giving me a raise. Philosophically your cause and effect is wrong.

"IT IS REMARKABLE HOW YOU BUSHIES CAN IGNORE WHAT BUSH AND THE GOP FISCAL POLICY IS DOING TO THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY! Every year the taxpayers MUST pay hundreds of Billions more in interest because we would not pay for what we spent!

It is remarkable that you can ignore the question and think no one will notice. You've abandoned the point of your blog and now are trying to change the subject. What has Bush not been doing to raise wages, improve benefits, and address the trade deficit.

It's a bad dodge, because evidently, according to you, Bush is the cause of the problem above, and yet in your last post you say that the necessity of raising taxes is the problem. Well, he hasn't raised taxes yet. So the national debt really can't be the cause of your complaints above.

So what is? How do you connect your perception of those CURRENT issues with what you call "consequences of (Bush's) policies? How do you propose he fix it. According to you, the only choice is to raise taxes to address a secondary issue, and make everything worse.

bakerstreet

on Jun 08, 2006

P.S. If it weren't for Reagan's policies that you complain about, you wouldn't have had the booming 90's to facetiously credit Clinton with. In 10 years, the fruits of our current tax strategy will be handed to some other Dem, who will squander it all and then leave yet another mess to be cleaned up...

ShadowWar

on Jun 08, 2006

Hey Gene,

Not to make you feel bad or anything but Oil just dropped below $70 a barrell after we killed Zarqawi. Hmm go figure. Kill a leader of the terrorist and oil drops. LOL

COL Gene

on Jun 08, 2006

IslandDog

I am a Moderate Republican and have been so for Over 40 Years. I support Balanced Budgets and DO NOT support Nation Building like Iraq I support the tax levels on the wealthy that were in effect just prior to the Bush Tax Cuts in 2001.

You say I do not answer you. I have stated the above more times then I can count. YOU JUST DO NOT LISTED!

COL Gene

on Jun 08, 2006

Killing Zarqawi was great. However I do not know how much less the violence will be since it appears to be sectarian between the factions in Iraq. Anything that enables us to GET OUT is a GOOD THING!

Our military does a GREAT job. It is the incompetent Commander-in-Chief and Sec Def that are the problems!

bakerstreet

on Jun 08, 2006

I have asked and asked and you refuse to answer. You can neither prove Bush's connection to the list of woes in your blog above, nor can you even suggest anything to fix them except going off topic and railing about balancing the budget.

Raising taxes won't fix lower wages or the trade deficit or lack of benefits. I've asked you time and again to back up your assertions on THIS blog, about those parts of the economy that you, yourself above blamed Bush's policies for. You opt not to. 'nuff said.

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