It happened last Friday. The stock market, oddly optimistic, opened higher. The Dow began more than 100 points above where it had been the previous day and started fluctuating upward from there.
Then President George Bush announced his plan to give the floundering U.S. economy what he called a “shot in the arm.”
A shot in the head would be more like it. As predicted in my last cranky post, “…you can be certain the Bush Administration – said to be frantically working on an economic “fix” to save Republican rear ends in the next election – will compound the problem they’ve created by offering tax cuts for the rich as part of the fix."
And that’s what the Bush administration did.
Economic “stimulus” for the
greed glands of billionaires
and corporate officers only
The Republican “economic stimulus package” would offer “tax incentives for business investment” (meaning less tax on the profits returned by investments made by the rich) plus “quick tax relief for individuals,” which means income tax cuts primarily for the rich.
Conservatives who believe in the natural wisdom of the markets should pay close attention to the chart (above left) showing what the market quite wisely did when it heard the Bush plan.
It plunged to a low that was even lower than it had been before it began recovering, then bounced around in the doldrums for the rest of the day.
Interestingly, every Republican presidential candidate is talking about how he would be the bigger tax cutter. The sole exception to this lunacy is Mike Huckabee, who has an even crazier plan to eliminate all income taxes and replace them with a national sales tax which would be the ruination of the poor, punishing to the middle class, and another windfall for the filthy rich.
All the Republicans are wrong. And so is any Democrat in the House or Senate who lacks the guts to stand up and cry foul to the President.
Here’s a my own cranky
economic stimulus plan
What we need to do is raise taxes – on high income individuals only – and then begin plowing the money into three areas:
1. Infrastructure repair, so that our nation’s bridges, highways, water systems, levees, airports and other important structures begin to recover from the years of Republican neglect – before we have another New Orleans precipitated by failing levees, bridge collapse or airplane disaster. Infrastcture repair would also put thousands back to work, put money in their pockets, and provide real economic stimulation.
2. Begin repaying the horrendous national debt incurred by a Republican administration backed by a conservative congress. That way your dollars will be worth a little more to the rest of the world and the U.S. will become a stronger magnet for investment.
3. Lots of national spending on health care and education, among our best investments for the future.
Getting out of the war in Iraq as fast as possible would also be a huge help, by stopping the billions of dollars that pour down that sinkhole every week instead of into the U.S. economy where they could be supporting economic growth. And remember, this is a Republican war.
That’s why, two years from now, we need to return not one Republican to the House, Senate or White House. Got that? Not…one…Republican.
Not…one…Republican!
What we need to do is raise taxes – on high income individuals only – and then begin plowing the money into three areas:
1. Infrastructure repair, so that our nation’s bridges, highways, water systems, levees, airports and other important structures begin to recover from the years of Republican neglect – before we have another New Orleans precipitated by failing levees, bridge collapse or airplane disaster. Infrastcture repair would also put thousands back to work, put money in their pockets, and provide real economic stimulation.
2. Begin repaying the horrendous national debt incurred by a Republican administration backed by a conservative congress. That way your dollars will be worth a little more to the rest of the world and the U.S. will become a stronger magnet for investment.
3. Lots of national spending on health care and education, among our best investments for the future.
Getting out of the war in Iraq as fast as possible would also be a huge help, by stopping the billions of dollars that pour down that sinkhole every week instead of into the U.S. economy where they could be supporting economic growth. And remember, this is a Republican war.
That’s why, two years from now, we need to return not one Republican to the House, Senate or White House. Got that? Not…one…Republican.
Not…one…Republican!
