Saturday, October 18, 2003
Fightin' Words...
Rarely have I been as angry reading a news story as I was reading this one from The New York Times:0 comments
How to Recover From a Bad Economy, and Win
We all knew that desperation would be settling in over at the White House as their poll numbers dropped and we get closer to the 2004 election. This is no great news flash.
But here is the section that rankled me most:
"Job growth is an issue, but there are two things President Bush will benefit from," said Representative Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican. "People have a more sophisticated understanding of the economy, and don't expect miracles from fiscal policy or monetary policy from here in Washington. Second, there's a realization that he has pushed hard to do something about it."
Oh, has he, now...
That would be awfully good to know.
This is right out of the We-assume-you-CAN-fool-all-of-the-people-all-of-the-time school of politics.
This screams: We're incompetent, but you won't hold it against us, would you? Especially not while I'm holding this flag here, right?
Yes, Rep. Portman, the American people do have a more sophisticated understanding of the economy than earlier generations might have had.
While you may not have been looking, they spent eight years entering the stock market through retirement plans and increased wages, which they were encouraged to invest—in order to help the country "grow the economy" (remember that one?) and to improve their own, new portfolios. They were instructed to fend for their own futures. A very Republican type of idea, you must admit.
Knowing little about this brave new world of finance, Americans flocked to instructional sources, and, voila, a new cottage industry and a whole new small investor class were created.
Americans started reading The Wall Street Journal for the first time. They started to watch CNBC and CNNfn; poured over web sites like Motley Fool and The Street.com; read Business Week and Money and Fortune and Forbes and CBS MarketWatch.com, absorbing as much as they could in as short a period of time as possible. What they didn't understand, they ended up doing more research on. Most importantly, they learned. Seniors, kids, the working class, the middle class, the newly affluent, those on the bottom who finally had jobs and money in their pockets. People everywhere finally understood the age-old Republican notion of Self-Reliance, which Bill Clinton stole and made his own, then sold to the American people.
Americans watched and understood as George W. Bush went through the 2000 Republican primaries saying that what we needed were tax cuts to spread the massive surplus back around the country. With all this cash floating around, didn't sound too bad an idea.
When the Market began to cool, they also understood what was needed. But then immediately after election day, they watched Bush's panicked response to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's statements about the need to let the air out of the tech bubble slowly in order to acheive "a soft landing," thereby avoiding a crash. They saw Bush's attempt to further his own aims by saying, See? See? the economy's in horrible shape, always has been and now we desperately need tax cuts, before we go Crash! We're gonna Crash, I say! This became his mantra all during the Surpeme Court haggling over the election's winner, and afterwards. And of course it panicked investors, and not surprisingly, we ended up with the crash instead of the soft landing.
They understood for three full years as they saw the Bush administration stand by impotently as the stock markets (and Americans' dreams for a better life) lost up to 70% of their value.
They understood as they saw the administration's only course of action over three years was to push successive tax cuts through Congress, only to see them fail as stimulants while the wealth of average Americans slid still further.
They understood the severity of the problem. They saw Greenspan throw a series of interest rate cuts at the economy, only to have no impact, separately or together. They saw that every arrow he shot at the economy failed to land without any thoughtful or effective help from the White House. They now clearly see and understand that the Fed Chairman is barely hanging on, down to one last arrow. But still, no help comes from the White House.
They understood the economy too well when they saw their savings, retirement funds and college savings accounts disappear.
They understood the economy when they saw their co-workers laid off, doubling or tripling their own workloads.
They understood the economy fully when they themselves were laid off, first blowing through what was left of their savings, then their unemployment funds. All the while they've been watching more jobs flow to other countries for cheap labor and, increasingly, cheap management. They also see the slew of companies incorporating overseas to avoid fair taxation.
They looked for policy from the White House to lead them out of financial terrorism. They understood fully when the White House called for more tax cuts.
"People have a more sophisticated understanding of the economy, and don't expect miracles from fiscal policy or monetary policy from here in Washington"
Correct, we do understand. We've never expected miracles. Just basic, core competency. We've been denied both.
"Second, there's a realization that he has pushed hard to do something about it."
They also understand bullshit when they see it.
Rep. Portman, we've watched. We've looked to the White House for leadership.
At no point has anyone in this administration put forth a policy that has been any more creative than the tired refrains of "Let's try another tax cut," or "Let's deregulate something," or "The invasion of Iraq should stimulate the economy."
Both Treasury Secretaries we've suffered through, and everyone involved on the Council of Economic Advisors, have failed miserably in their mandate to come up with creative ways to expand the economy and protect the financial security of the American people.
I challenge anyone to lay out a more comprehensive approach than "tax cuts" that they've heard from anyone in this administration. It doesn't exist.
This administration has done nothing about the utter destruction of the economic health of the United States. In fact, you could go so far as to say that they could not have made matters worse had they planned it this way.
Now, in time for the 2004 elections, they're starting to get creative. Not with policy, mind you, just with rhetoric and spin.
Intent on taking—or at least being seen to take—further action, Mr. Bush has repackaged his existing domestic proposals, many of which are stalled on Capitol Hill, as "efforts to create jobs." At nearly every public appearance, he suggests that encouraging more oil and gas drilling in the United States, limiting lawsuit awards and providing tax incentives to businesses for providing health insurance will help spur more employment.
Forgive me. I simply fail to understand how raping Alaska, taking away the ability of Americans to sue those companies which callously cause irreparable harm or death to them or their families, and taking the coward's way out of offering more tax cuts to businesses instead of attacking the runaway greed of insurance companies are all supposed to translate somehow into more jobs for people who are running out of unemployment benefits.
Or improve the lot of the "lucky" ones still employed—many of whom are doing the work of 6-12 people, while being denied raises, vacations and days off, and forced to pay ever soaring rates for increasingly inferior health coverage.
Maybe there's actually nothing there to really understand. Just accept it on faith and move on. I see.
So in essence, for the next year and a half, every time someone in Bush's White House takes a crap, you'll hear they're working on stimulating the water, chemical and waste treatment industries and create jobs. Gotcha.
This is called a Domestic Agenda.
The American people understand perfectly.
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posted by Gotham 1:11 PM
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