The Commerce Department reported that the trade deficit in January was the second highest ever in the history of the U S. We have run record high trade deficits in each of the last three years. Last year it hit $617.1 Billion which is an increase of 24% in just one year. Last monthy a surge is textile shipments from China and high oil prices pushed the monthly deficit to $58.3 Billion. Bush is not using the controls within the trade agreements to help stem the trade deficit. China, whi...

Nightly, Lou Dobbs documents the failure of President Bush to fulfill his most basic responsibility which is to safeguard the United States. 3 ½ years after 9/11, President Bush claims we are short 10,000 border guards and thousands more INS agents to deal with the illegal aliens within our country. At the very same time he is acknowledging the lack of resources to enforce our immigration laws to protect this country, his new budget fails to ask for the money necessary to provide the ne...

I sent my Blog,"Unemployment Rate does not give a clear job picture" to the Dept of Labor. Over the past week, I have exchanged three sets of E-mails with staffers at the Division of Labor Force Statistics about the unemployment rate. They agreed with the points in my Blog and told me, "the official Unemployment rate doesn't provide a full picture of labor market difficulties". The offiicial unemployment rate that is sighted, which went from 5.2% to 5.4% in February does not count many peo...

Social Security Math Below are the results of President Bush’s Social Security plan as outlined one web site www.gop.com For a worker age of 53, their account value at age 68 would be $48,922 with a 8% compounded yield per year. Adjusted for inflation at 3% that is the equivalent of $30,980 today. For a worker age 43 their account value at age 68 would be $150,789 with a 8% compounded yield. Adjusted for inflation at 3% that is the equivalent of $70,442 today. For a worker ag...

Social Security MathBelow are the results of President Bush’s Social Security plan as outlined one web site www.gop.comFor a worker age of 53, their account value at age 68 would be $48,922 with a 8% compounded yield per year. Adjusted for inflation at 3% that is the equivalent of $30,980 today.For a worker age 43 their account value at age 68 would be $150,789 with a 8% compounded yield. Adjusted for inflation at 3% that is the equivalent of $70,442 today.For a worker age 28 their account...

I watch the Lou Dobbs show and each night he has a question that listeners respond to via the Internet. I know these polls are not scientifically constructed however the topics that are being covered are in the forefront of the issues that are important to our nation. It’s remarkable to me night after night those who choose to vote on these polls show the overwhelming disapproval of the policies our government is following. What is most astounding is that the results are not even ...

Let’s take a look at the Bush proposal for Social Security private accounts. Below is a table which shows the results of allowing workers to set aside $1000 in year one and increase that investment by $100 per year from their Social Security taxes. The column on the right shows the cumulative balance using an 8% compounded rate of return. As you can see, the amount of money that a worker would have at retirement under the Bush plan is NOT significant unless you participate for 20- 25 years...

The Associated Press today reported that the Bush administration is sending a phalanx of people from the White House and the Treasury Dept. to sell his Social Security changes to the American public. There is a very basic problem with what President Bush is doing - what is the president asking us to consider? We are constantly told when questions are asked about his plan, “that has not been decided.” It’s like Mr. Bush is trying to sell us a new car that has 20 inch wheels. What doe...

Please list those things that Bush has done during the past FOUR years that have or will benefit the majority of Americans? Be specific.

The AP reported that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their study of the Bush plans for spending and taxes as the House and Senate budget committees begin work of on the budget. The report concludes deficits will continue under the Bush fiscal plan and will add $2.58 trillion to the national debt by 2015. That is significantly worse than earlier projections indicating 1.6 trillion would be added to the national debt by 2015. Earlier projections by Bush (OMB) sh...

The employment numbers today were a step forward by producing 262,000 new jobs. Not only is that more than were expected, but it is more than economists claim are necessary to keep pace with population growth. To keep pace with our growing work force, our economy needs to produce about 125,000 new jobs each month. Thus, last month we produced more than double that amount. Most would believe that would result in a reduction of the nation's unemployment rate when in fact the unemployment r...

Today the Department of Defense reported that first-time in a decade United States Marine Corps failed to meet its recruiting goals in both January and February by a total of 275 recruits. In addition, The United States Army fell short of its recruiting goals by almost 2000 recruits in February There was concerned expressed by the results in recruiting both active, reserve and National Guard soldiers given the increased demand for military recruits. Although some of the shortfall is be...

The Bush proposal to cut $40 billion from Medicaid before savings are realized would jeopardize the health care for the poorest Americans was the message that came out of the Governor's conference this week . President Bush made the case that the the growing Medicaid expenditures must be reduced. There was agreement to look for ways to streamline Medicaid, reduced fraud and lower the cost of prescription drugs. One example is that some elderly Americans are transferring assets to their fam...

President Bush has been understating the size of the Federal defict. He has been using two main distortions to accomplich this lie. First, he understates the cost of the War. Bush included 35 Billion on a line called "Proposed Supplemental" when he knows the costs per year are more then $80 Billion. That is a $50 Billion dollar understatement. The second method of understating the federal budget deficit is by adding the annual surplus in Social Security and Medicare to the Federal Budget ...

The final budget deception is that even the President’s projected deficit of $10 Trillion by 2008 is understated by trillions of dollars. The reason the actual deficit is understated is because the budget deficit is calculated using an accounting trick called the “Unified Budget”. The unified budget combines the Federal Budget with Social Security and Medicare. At the present time, both Social Security and Medicare show an annual surplus. They both collect more in taxes then they pay out i...