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Rhetoric as Empty as his Boxes
BUZZFLASH
READER COMMENTARY
by Dan DeLisio
Among the plethora of sugar coated falsehoods contained in Mr. Bush's State of the Union (Bad and Getting Worse) Speech was his bald statement that "we will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, other presidents, and other generations." Come again? Does he ever bother to really try and understand the import of the words that Karl and his minions write for him? If he did maybe he would realize how the vast gulf between his prepared text and cold reality, his credibility gap if you will, grows wider each time he utters such a blatant untruth.
The plain truth of the matter is that the exploding Federal budget deficits that Mr. Bush's regressive tax cuts have played a heavy part in causing, and the even greater deficits that his new grievously ill-conceived dividend tax elimination proposals will cause, are a huge problem that will be passed on to future generations in the form of a runaway explosion in the national debt. Respectable economic estimates have pegged the total cost to our country of Mr. Bush's affirmative action for the rich, budget busting scheme at 2.15 TRILLION DOLLARS over the next ten years. http://www.brook.edu/views/testimony/gale/20010213.htm
The mountain of newly created debt will be a ponderous, strangling chain around the neck of future generations of Americans as interest payments will consume an ever greater portion of the yearly outlays of the Federal Government, thereby eliminating any possibility of making badly needed investments in our crumbling schools, roads, bridges, national parks, and severely hindering our ability to conduct sorely needed scientific and medical research, as well as hindering our ability to clean the air and water which have been befouled by Bush's corporate cronies. Moreover, because of the ever increasing need of the Federal government to borrow money to fill the black hole of Bushonomics, interest rates will skyrocket and choke off real growth in the entire economy.
To quote a phrase that seems all the rage these days: "I feel I am watching a rerun of a bad movie." In point of fact the bad movie is a Grade Z stinker on a creative and intellectual par with the cinematic "classic" "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." In taking us "Back to the Future" Mr. Bush has offered up a script that is pure recycled Reaganomics, a.k.a. "Voodoo Economics" which we tried before, to deleterious consequences. "Cut taxes on the rich and the attendant economic growth will increase revenue!" is how its supply side, "Joe Isuzu" style purveyors blissfully and cheerfully framed their sales pitch back then in 1980. However, their half-baked economic theory, which was sketched out on a cocktail napkin in a bar (http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/39/news-bradley.php) turned out to be a case of supreme fantasy thinking, as are most crazy, alcohol fueled schemes that are concocted in bars. Once the tax cuts were implemented, and vast, wasteful increases in the defense budget enacted, the budget plunged immediately into huge deficits, necessitating the "Tax Reform Act" of 1986 which wiped out many tax deductions favorable to the middle class such as interest on car loans and personal debt.
Nevertheless, the core of Reaganomics was untouched, and the effects of the large yearly deficits became a permanent, structural job-killing drag on the economy, a fact even George Bush Sr. recognized when he agreed to undo some of the cuts for top wage earners in 1990, an intellectually honest, respectable act of political courage. President Clinton and Congressional Democrats, in an equally great act of political courage finished the job of repudiating Reaganomics by slightly raising the tax rates in 1993 only on those in the top income brackets who had received the largest windfall under the supply side scheme. (http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/mcintyre-r.html; http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/19/devil5.html)
This stanching of the hemorrhaging of red ink, along with sensibly targeted investments in the fundamental needs of the American people, resulted in an increase in revenue, and ultimately led to lower interest rates and less borrowing by the government. Thus there was sustained growth in the economy for the entirety of President Clinton's term. Unemployment fell, the deficit turned to a surplus and the stock market soared. (http://www.academycomputerservice.com/economics/charts.htm) Unfortunately, the enactment of the first round of tax cuts called for by Mr. Bush upon being appointed by Scalia and company marked a return to these failed policies of the past, and, gee don't you know it here we are, once again, with unemployment soaring, deficits soaring and the stock market tanking. It is quite clear that these failed economic policies are just as injurious to the present and future health, stability and prosperity of our nation now as they were then.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, a President who was, by contrast, genuinely concerned about the impact of present governmental policies on future generations: "The natural right to be free of the debts of a previous generation is a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating." Fortunately many Democrats have recognized the danger of what President Jefferson was warning of and have decided to fight to prevent the saddling of future generations with the economic albatross of Mr. Bush's borrow and spend policies. Senator Daschle has declared Mr. Bush's welfare for the rich dividend tax plan "dead on arrival." For the sake of our future lets make it a quick burial. More assistance to the superrich, financed by the indebtedness of future generations is not what is needed at this point in time. That is the path to ruin.
There is another sensible path. We can do the fiscally prudent thing and choose to forego tax cuts altogether at this time and instead, in a fiscally responsible manner, focus on alleviating the severe financial burdens faced by state governments so that they do not have to cut vital services, bolster education funding to poor areas so that students do not have to attend crumbling overcrowded schools, provide funds to states and municipalities which must repair decaying roads and bridges, provide job retraining and housing assistance for the unemployed and underemployed, and access to health care for all. All of these measures are sound investments in the future which will reap far greater economic dividends to us as a nation than will the rapacious enrichment of our few wealthiest citizens. It is only by forcefully and responsibly addressing the current, pressing immediate needs of our people can we ensure that we will not be passing our present vexing problems along to future generations.
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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