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Originally Posted by Beestie
And this is what you left out of your summary:
Other Republican priorities include making President Bush's income tax cuts permanent, capping monetary awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, curbing class-action litigation and enacting an energy policy centered on greater domestic oil and natural gas production
Go ahead and focus on the negative all you want to - my point in my prior post still stands: there are positives to a 2nd Bush term. If you want to ignore them that's up to you. I do find it interesting, tho, that a renegade Republican (who, btw, I despise) makes a remark about putting God in the public square and that trumps all the issues that I had to go to the article you cited and highlight myself.
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You had to highlight it yourself because the rest of us understand just how bogus these "positives" are.
Starting with tax cuts. One of the first things Bush is doing will be to go to Congress and ask for another $40 billion for the war. Where do you think that money will come from? The first two guesses don't count. On top of that Bush's tax cuts amounted to tax INCREASES out there in the real world. The greatest breaks were given to the upper 1% (I'm so glad THEY get to hang on to their money). This aid to the wealthy was paid for by giving less Federal money to the states. The states responding by cutting back on services and at the same time raising state taxes, so we now all get less while paying more. Here are numerous citations from a wide variety of sources on this issue. You don't have to just take my word for it:
"What Tax Cut? States Are Using Higher Taxes and Fees to Take Back What Uncle Sam is Giving Away," U.S. News & World Report, 2/2/04
“Federal Policies Contribute to the Severity of the State Fiscal Crisis,”Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/3/03
"Decline in Federal Grants Will Put Additional Squeeze on State and Local Budgets," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2/3/04
"Up to 1.6 Million Low-Income People - Including About Half a Million Children - Are Losing Health Coverage Due to State Budget Cuts," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/22/03
"Trends in College Pricing 2003," College Board, 10/21/03
"We're Paying Dearly for Bush's Tax Cuts," Citizens for Tax Justice, 9/23/03
"State Budget Deficits Projected for Fiscal Year 2005," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/30/04
Figures on the incidence of the Bush tax cuts were provided by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Figures showing that national debt owed to foreigners have increased from $1 trllion in January 2001 to $1.5 trillion currently are from the U.S. Treasury International Capital System website.
Figures showing that the total assets of the Social Security Trust Funds borrowed by the federal government have increased from $1 trillion in January 2001 to $1.5 trillion currently are from Social Security Online.
Figures showing the $1.3 trillion increase in the national debt under Bush are from the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt.
Malpractice is not the chief factor driving increased health care costs, so capping malpractice and class action awards will bring little relief in that area.
Increasing US domestic production of non-renewable energy supplies is a questionable cure for our current oil woes. The reason those sources haven't been tapped is cost. We can increase production, but the cost of doing so will show up at the fuel pump and on your utilities bill. It will be a short term fix, anyhow. Oil and natural gas are finite. Sooner or later we are going to be forced into seeking alternative energy supplies. There's no time like the present. The 40 billion dollars we will pour into the Iraq conflict could have funded a plethora of alternative enrgy research projects and been a giant step towards energy self-sufficiency for this country.
Bottom line, all that article is saying is that Bush's policies will continue to charge the average tax payer more money with less in return; a growing deficit; increasing instability in the social security system which is being raided to the tune of over a trillion dollars; and a bandaid to stick on this country's health care problems. Sorry if I see the glass as half empty.