Republican economics benefit the wealthy
TOM MAERTENS
A recent Census Bureau report shows that poverty has increased for four consecutive years. Since Bush took office, 5.4 million more Americans have fallen below the poverty line.
According to the same report, average annual household income declined by $2,572, approximately 4.8 percent during that period.
While the middle class was getting its pockets picked, the wealthiest five percent have seen their incomes go up every year, including by 1.7 percent last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The current budget-reconciliation bill illustrates how this "trickle up" works. The bill provides for $70 billion in tax breaks on capital gains and dividends but cuts $50 billion in student loans, Medicaid, child support enforcement, foster care, and food stamps.
Bush has also boosted inflation-adjusted discretionary spending in his first term by 35.1 percent, surpassing even the 33.4 percent increase for LBJ's Great Society. What's conservative about that?
The yearly increases in the national debt limit show the true cost of Bush's raid on the Treasury: Congress was forced to raise it by $450 billion in 2002; $984 billion the next year; $800 billion in 2004; and this year, by $781 billion. That's $3 trillion more debt in four years, a "birth tax" of $25,000 for every child born in this country.
The money went to pay for Bush's trumped-up war, his tax cuts for the rich, and corporate welfare, which were rubberstamped by a cast of bobbleheads in Congress like Gil Gutknecht, who reflexively nod in unison at every bad idea Bush dreams up.
Tax-cut and spend; giveaways to the rich. Republican economics.
(Reprinted from Mankato Free Press, December 2, 2005.)
A recent Census Bureau report shows that poverty has increased for four consecutive years. Since Bush took office, 5.4 million more Americans have fallen below the poverty line.
According to the same report, average annual household income declined by $2,572, approximately 4.8 percent during that period.
While the middle class was getting its pockets picked, the wealthiest five percent have seen their incomes go up every year, including by 1.7 percent last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The current budget-reconciliation bill illustrates how this "trickle up" works. The bill provides for $70 billion in tax breaks on capital gains and dividends but cuts $50 billion in student loans, Medicaid, child support enforcement, foster care, and food stamps.
Bush has also boosted inflation-adjusted discretionary spending in his first term by 35.1 percent, surpassing even the 33.4 percent increase for LBJ's Great Society. What's conservative about that?
The yearly increases in the national debt limit show the true cost of Bush's raid on the Treasury: Congress was forced to raise it by $450 billion in 2002; $984 billion the next year; $800 billion in 2004; and this year, by $781 billion. That's $3 trillion more debt in four years, a "birth tax" of $25,000 for every child born in this country.
The money went to pay for Bush's trumped-up war, his tax cuts for the rich, and corporate welfare, which were rubberstamped by a cast of bobbleheads in Congress like Gil Gutknecht, who reflexively nod in unison at every bad idea Bush dreams up.
Tax-cut and spend; giveaways to the rich. Republican economics.
(Reprinted from Mankato Free Press, December 2, 2005.)
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