When the tax cuts were first discussed in early 2001, the Bush Administration made it appear that his tax cuts would mainly benefit the Average American. In 2001 in fact 70% of the total Tax cuts did go to the middle income workers and 30% went to the Top 20%. As the additional cuts to the upper income groups took effect, the picture changed. The bottom line is that 70% of the tax cuts go to the top 20% and the middle income receive 29% with 1% going to the bottom 20%. By 2010 the top 1%...
Now Bush says we need to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps. WHY did it take him over 6 years to do what he said was needed in 2000? I agree that we need a much larger military and we need to have a crash replacement of most of the equipment that has been destroyed in Iraq. Now we need to develop a plan to achieve that objective. The fact is that we have had to increase the enlistment and reenlistment bonuses significantly to just maintain the all volunteer force at the curre...
Last week the Bush Administration sent half his Cabinet, lead by the Treasury Secretary, to China. The subject was Trade. Since 2001 when Bush approved the entry of China to the WTO, the trade deficit between China and the U.S. has spiraled out of control. In 2001 the trade deficit with China was $83 Billion. In 2002 $103; 2003 $124; 2004 $162; 2005 $ 202 and it is estimated for 2006 at $220 Billion. The source of this data is the Data Dissemination Branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. Follow...
Bush is looking at surging the number of troops in Iraq. At the same time ALL the land force military chiefs have told Bush and Congress that we CAN NOT sustain substantially larger deployments at the current military manpower levels. That includes the Army CoS, Marine Corps Commandant, Chief of the Army Reserve and Chief of the National Guard. The issue is both the available manpower and the condition of the equipment that has been severely impacted by over four years in Iraq which cau...
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is trying to revive the Bush plan to privatize Social Security. Even if there is some possibility that the private accounts invested in equities could boost benefits in the future, that change does NOT solve the problem at hand which is HOW TO PAY the benefits to the Baby Boomers! The Bush plan that Paulson is pushing actually makes the current problem of paying the promised benefits to the Boomers WORSE. That is because the money that the Bush plan wou...
Presidential historians tell us that as a president moves closer to the end of their term in office their attention turns to their legacy. They realize that the time when they can affect current policy will end and they become more concerned with what will endure from their time in the White House. Many historians believe on of the longest lasting legacy of a president are any Supreme Court justices they were able to seat on the Court. Given the life tenure of Supreme Court Justices an...
Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security said they only control 20 % of the border between Mexico and the U.S. Five years after 9/11 along 80% of the border ANY ONE and ANYTHING can be brought into the United States. We still do not inspect 90% of the shipping containers that come into our ports. If in the future we see one of those mushroom clouds that Chaney and Bush said could result from Saddam because a terrorist smuggled a nuclear weapon come across our border or through our p...
The Baker/ Hamilton Commission has concluded that situation in Iraq is GRAVE and DANGEROUS. On November 6th Bush claimed we were winning the Iraq war. Gates yesterday told the Senate that we are NOT winning the Iraq war. Bush continues to live in the state of denial and pledges to remain until we WIN in Iraq. Bush has defined WIN as a STABLE, DEMOCRATIC and NON HOSTLE Iraq where foreign terrorists will NOT be allowed to operate and plan future attacks against America. There are VER...
It is remarkable—When the New York Times or some other newspaper releases classified information it is a security problem. Now it turns out that Bush used the New York Times to leak classified information from his National Security Advisor and that is just fine. What a hypocrite!
Conditions in Afghanistan are turning more dangerous by the day. Taliban forces are strengthening, the central government is unable to control most of the country and the drug problem is at epidemic proportions. In addition, the promised rebuilding of basic services has not developed which has caused the civilian population to become disenchanted with both the U.S. and the central government. Military force levels are not sufficient to deal with the Taliban and Bush has not been succ...
November 30, 2006 Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID S. CLOUD WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel’s deliberations. The report, unanimously approved by the 10-member panel, led by Jam...
Yesterday GWB told the world that the principal cause for the growing violence in Iraq is because of al Qaeda. Nothing is further from the truth. His own Pentagon and intelligence agencies have clearly documented the VAST majority of the source of the violence is Sunni vs. Shiite. That is a civil conflict where by each of these factions is fighting for control of Iraq and attempting to punish the other side for past and current attacks. For Bush to stand before the world and claim the pri...
Today as we all give thanks for our great country we see the results of what George W. Bush has done by invading Iraq. I hope Bush, as he sits down for his Thanksgiving dinner, looks at what he has done. His insistence of invading Iraq has set the stage for what is the worst single attack in Iraq. In a single attack today there are150 Dead and 250 injured. In October over 3,700 Iraqi people dead and over 100 American Military were killed. Anyone that agrees with Bush that we are w...
Some more of this great Bush economy. Look at the link below. http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20061120/45613650_3ca6_1552620061120-1266837621 Look at the demonstration that GWB faces on his Far East tour. I wonder what GHWB thinks of his son—NOT what he says publicly but what he really thinks of the messes his son has created over the past six years. Here is another story: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20061120/45613650_3ca6_1552620061120-1776360901 ...
The Center on Budget & Policy Priorities used data from CBO to shed some light on the question of WHO IS GETTING THE BUSH TAX CUTS? The tax cuts were designed to give relatively small tax cuts to middle income taxpayers starting in 2001 and phase in much larger tax cuts for the top 20% from 2002 to 2010. The data was broken down by the bottom 20% (who got virtually nothing) and then looked at the middle income in three sections—The lower 1/3 (20 % of the Population), middle 1/3) anot...