Based on what do you say that the economy is not up for low and middle income Americans? The unemployment rate in November, 2001 (just after 9/11) was 5.6. It was 5.4 last month.
Hourly earnings have continued to go up:
So I have to ask - on what basis do you form your opinions? Do you have any facts to back up your opinions at all?
The deficit and trade deficit are very interesting statistics but do not affect Americans. We have run trade deficits for nearly my entire life (about 30 years). We can debate whether they may affect Americans in the future (at which point the deficit as a % of GDP becomes the meaningful statistic). In fact, 2004's deficit was a measely 3.6% of the Gross domestic product. Compare that to the 6% deficit during the Reagan years or the 7.2% that occurred on Truman's watch.
As the house budget (house.gov) points out: http://www.budget.house.gov/lgstdeficits030905.pdf last year's "record" deficit doesn't even make it into the top 10 budget deficits for all time. Which is pretty remarkable considering that we're at war.
As for energy prices:
Gas prices are pretty stable when adjusted for inflation. Using raw numbers is meaningless. Costs go up over time due to inflation. That's why we have to pay $7 to go to the movie instead of a nickel.
I mean, you say all these things but you show that you really don't know what the heck you're talking about.
See, this sentence sums up you and Dave, Col Gene. It's not about facts. It's not about reality. It's about how you FEEL. It's always about the poll, the gut feeling, the emotion.
You and Dabe give these impassioned, content-free essays on how bad things are. But there's nothing substantial in them.
Someone states a fact: "Unemployment has been going down."
Then someone like you or dabe shows up and says "Tell that to the unemployed factory worker whose job has been outsourced to Mexico!"
That's a meaningless statement. You will always have someone who has suffered no matter what.
You guys don't care about facts or realities. It's about emotional satisfaction. A kind of ideological narcisism.
For instance, Col Gene, you have stated that the congressional budget office has stated that the tax cuts caused the deficit. I asked you to provide a source. You "couldn't find it". So I looked myself and guess what I found:
Title: "Tax cuts did not cause the deficits"
http://www.budget.house.gov/nottaxcuts030905.pdf
The CBO data not only does not say what you claimed it said but it actually states the opposite to the point that the HBC made a chart entiutled "The tax cuts did not cause the deficit"
Emotion is not fact.