Bush’s Reckless Economic Policies
Posted by Moonage on 18 Nov 2005 | Tagged as: National Politics
A lot has been made over the last five years of Bush’s economic policies. I mean, even outside the traditional political debate arena. For instance:
That’s a LEGAL paper.
Commondreams takes it to their usual over-the-top conspiracy level:
IT’S EASY to understand why the administration is plowing ahead with one immense tax cut after another. The Bush people oppose social outlays, and the best strategy for cutting public services is to starve government.
It’s a neat game: Cut taxes on the Republican watch (Reagan, Bush I), force intervening Democratic presidents to opt for fiscal prudence over social investment - someone has to - and then, when the budget is back in balance at a lower level of social outlay, do it again (Bush II).
This maneuver forces Democrats to take responsibility for periodically raising taxes to undo the economic damage. Putting budget balance ahead of social outlay also undercuts the traditional Democratic winning formula of delivering services that ordinary Americans actually value.
However, they do go on to make this assertion:
Right now, one thing is keeping a weak economy out of deep recession - very low interest rates. They lower the cost of everything from home mortgages to business borrowing to consumer credit. A wave of refinancings has put hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of consumers.
Now imagine what will happen if mortgage interest rates go back up to 7 or 8 percent. For the moment, despite rising deficits, the Federal Reserve is able to keep interest rates low because in a weak economy the forces of inflation are so mild. But in the past, inflation has caught the economy by surprise due to unanticipated events such a spike in the price of oil, bad harvests, or spiraling health care costs.
No need to imagine, Commondreams, it happened. We are THERE NOW. All of the above has happened, and more. We’ve had a spike in oil, bad harvests, spiraling health care costs. And, you can toss in a war, a major catastrophy striking New Orleans, as well as embargoes due to mad cow disease. It’s all there Commondreams. What did the economy do in light of all this? Not what they suggested. It EXPANDED. It grew. Unemployment went down, the GDP went up. Hell, the dollars’ even stronger against the Euro than when Commondreams wrote that article in June 2003.
But, the bottom line of this post is not how wrong Commondreams was, but the sentiment and political rhetoric Commondreams manifests. That the Republicans spend while taxing the poor. Today we had a fine example of the realities of that. Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. It cuts a few billion dollars from the federal budget. Democrats then decided it was cutting from the wrong place ( read NIMBY ), entitlements ( not exclusively ). Final tally, 200 Democrats voted against lowering the federal budget, ZERO supported it. Nada. Not one. Not one single Democrat voted to correct Bush’s reckless spending.
Higher interest rates, war, all kinds of disasters, the economy hasn’t collapsed, and the Republicans are the ones practicing fiscal restraint while the Democrats protest.
Hey Commondreams ( Ted, Nancy, and Diane ) is this your worst nightmare come true? I’ll bet this turn of events leaves Howard Dean screaming like a banshee.
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1 Comment »
on 21 Nov 2005 at 12:18 pm 1.Bryan Kerwick
said …
Starving the government is a good thing! Letting people keep their own hard earned money and spending it as THEY see fit is not a bad thing. Avoiding “Cradle to Grave” Socialistic policies is a good thing.
Everyone wants free stuff from the government, but the problem is that the stuff isn’t free.
The very rich do not pay taxes, they generally collect them when the tax rates are unfairly imposed on the very rich. They simply move their investments out of the capitol markets where they were useful in creating jobs to the tax free government debt issues. Thats right my Liberal friends, the rich COLLECT taxes on your watch in lieu of paying them.
Next time you sit there scratching your head wondering how tax revenues always increase when tax rates are reduced, remember this little post.
For me, a person of almost no means, I still much prefer a free market economy over an altruistic socialistic monetary redistribution plan. The idea of helping those of less means at the expense of those that can afford it sounds great but in reality, it causes much more harm to those it was intended to help in the first place. See loss of jobs and inability of home ownership by the lower and middle class to understand how bad an idea socialism really is. No opportunity means no hope in changing ones lot in life. That is the root cause of socialistic policies designed to help the poorer people but in reality locks them into a fate not of their choosing.