*To all 3 of my readers, I must deviate from bike ramblings to answer-more directly-a post to my "liberal" blog...
It was said that I should be thankful for the $1000 child tax credit (I am) and that this money goes a long way to making ends meet...that just is too hard to believe, so I dug around on Dubya's record and lookee what I found...
Sorry for lack of sources, if you are so inclined to question I am sure I can retrieve my bookmarks1.)Salaries are still below where they were at the start of the recovery in November 2001. That, while productivity -- the growth of the economic pie -- is up by almost 15 percent. Meaning we're working harder, producing more, for the same money as five years ago.
2.)Since the recession ended in 2001, 50 percent more of the growth in corporate income was sucked up as profits than after past recessions. That's left less for those of us who work for a living.
3.) Median household income has now fallen for five years in a row. It was 4 percent, or $2,000, lower in 2004 than it was in 1999.
4.) U.S. household debt, adjusted for inflation, rose by more than a third over the last four years. Mortgage and consumer debt equals 115 percent of after-tax income, and the amount American families spend paying off those debts is at an all-time high of almost 14 percent of their paychecks. In other words Americans are all paying a hefty monthly debt tax to banks and creditors on top of what we already pay the government.
5.) The typical tax cut for the median income taxpayer will be $600 a year.
For the 78 million taxpayers in the lowest 60 percent of the income scale, the tax cut will average $347 a year.
In contrast, at the top of the income scale the average tax cut will be $53,000 annually--virtually identical to the $54,000 annual tax cut proposed by the President.
6.) Bush claimed that his tax cut would “reduce tax rates for everyone who pays income tax.” He failed to mention that this “relief” program would put half of the tax cut's dividends into the hands of our nation's wealthiest 5%, while 8.1 million citizens in the bottom half of the income bracket receive approximately $300 a year. Reducing tax revenues while doubling the growth rate of federal spending has caused the federal budget deficit to balloon to a projected $4 trillion over the next 10 years.
7.) 3.3 million jobs (93,000 in August of 2003 alone) have been lost since Bush took office--more than the last 11 Presidents combined. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2001-August 2003) Bush is likely to be the first president since Herbert Hoover to show a net loss of jobs at the end of his first term
8.) The 2004 budget set the record for the largest deficit in history: either $477 billion or $521 billion (CBO and OMB numbers, respectively).
9.) The federal budget surplus of over $200 billion that we enjoyed in the year 2000 has disappeared, and we are now facing a massive annual deficit of over $400 billion.
10.) GW's justice department was the first in US history to attempt to enforce federal regulations while refusing to disclose what those regulations are.
It goes on and on...
For the record, I went to the base meaning of the word "republican" (according to Merriam Webster):
DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN b : of, relating to, or constituting the one of the two major political parties evolving in the U.S. in the mid-19th century that is usually primarily associated with business, financial, and some agricultural interests and is held to favor a
restricted governmental role in economic life
This party might not be so republican after all as they seem to want to have ANY and EVERY role not only in our economic, but also PERSONAL life. Way too scary. Just know, whenever you decide to give up rights that took 200 years to achieve, there is NO way you're getting them back.
"Flash" (Kirby/Steve/David's Identified Super-double), and "Wonder Woman" (Grady's double)- hang out with 2 cool guys!
